Summer of my content

Didn't think I'd ever say it, but I am. My soon to be 'adult' child is having a good summer. It's not that I wanted him to have a bad summer, but I had hoped he would have found a job. He has  a July birthday, and all the nagging in the world to find work, was preempted by the need to turn 17. Many of the locations he had applied for at the end of school year just sent him away saying come back later. Well later, after a summer birthday, translates into the job that may have been there belongs to someone else by the time he meets the age requirement.

Now with only a few leads to pursue a summer job, the days have settled into trips to Borders Bookstore, followed by reading on the coach as cold air-conditioned air blows over his bare feet. We are lucky to be one of the remaining areas in Connecticut where closure hasn't scooped up our Borders.

My disappointment over what could have been (he could have working the summer away - and socking away some needed money) has turned into delight! What parent wouldn't be to see their kid embrace the likes of Walt Whitman, E.E. Cummings and Edgar Allan Poe?

I'd come home from work and he wanted to read some of his favorite poems to me. That prompted me to introduce him to some of my favorites: Rainer Maria Rilke; Wendell Berry and Scott Hess. Wow that moment in time, sharing poetry with my son is something I don't know would have happened had we all just continued in normal routine. 

Poetry is like water, you don't realize how much you need it until the taste of it refreshes your palette.

There's still time for the job. I'm thinking the rest of his life! On a more immediate note, a new Big Y (supermarket), will be opening one town away. He's applied online and is going to attend the job fair. Now that he's 17, hopefully he will get hired and I think it will be exciting to see him earning his own money.

The next year is going to be busy like crazy. There will be college tours and applications, band practices and performances, and  like any high school senior, there will be emotions over the end of one part of life and excitement towards what will be the next part. It's all good and I'm glad that he's had the chance to take in some time to just be.