Don’t act like you didn’t know day #4 of Happy Born Day week wasn’t upon you!

birthday 4

Born

We are born and our parents instinctively know we are like them in many ways, even as a crinkly naked newborn.  But we don’t know that.  We spend our youth discovering we are individuals. We grow into young adults striving to create our own identity.  We spend our 20s promising ourselves we will not be like our parents in many ways.

Born Again

Then we turn 30, or maybe it’s some other age, but there is that moment when you realize you are your parents.  Slightly modified, slightly mutated, slightly taller, slightly smarter, slightly healthier.  But even with all those slightlies you realize you so essentially consist of who they are that to try to deny it is futile.

Born Again Again

And then something more dramatic happens.  You realize once again that you aren’t your parents.  You have them in you, but you aren’t them.  You can decide to not drink so much.  You can decide to be a better parent, or make more money, or be out in nature more.  You can decide to be like them or not, depending on if you like who they are or not.  You are not gripped by the genome as tight as you might think.  You can retain, discard, expand, modify.  It’s within your control.  Keep the best, get rid of the rest.

Born

And all the while you are going through that process, your kids are repeating it in front of your eyes.  Life happens that way.

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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman, who is the son of Skeets and Lee Coleman.

Quote by Blair Sabol, a very interesting character – Read up on her.

BlairSabol - Thiebaud

Blair Sabol by Wayne Thiebaud – Oil on canvas – 1965

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Here’s a picture of the Comet I took last night.

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