Generations

Yesterday I attended a birthday party for a 2 year old girl, the now oldest daughter of some very dear friends of mine. They recently had another child as well. They are a young couple - one I pretty much watched grow up. But now they are adults, married, worried about bills and caring for their children just like the rest of us. The friends who attended the birthday party for this little girl where also kids i watched grow into adults, find mates, get married, have children, etc. And they too were not the kids i knew - as much as they are now the proud parents of their own children. I had to sit back and watch as little children ran and played all over the place. It struck me that many of the adults in attendance I watched do the same thing when they were kids. I thought 'Shit, i've made it - I'm officially old as dirt.' But I'm not really that old, I'll be 39 this year. But not having any children of my own, I think now I live vicariously through those who do - sometimes envy them and other times reminded exactly why i decided not to have children of my own.
The boring parts of the bible we all like to skip when trying to read it through are all those damn 'so-in-so begat so-in-so, and who begat who, over and over listing the generations. To the outsider the list is boring and serves only as a historical reference, but sitting on a park bench watching the generations that surrounded me was something deeply moving and mystical. There was a spirit to what i witnessed. And it brought to life the boring 'begats' that they through the course of their generations were kids, grew up, found a mate, had kids of their own, grew old.. and the great cycle of life that God kicked into motion long ago is now no different than when it began. The same desire, the same love, the same striving to survive in a not-so-perfect world but making the best of it for the next generation. "Teach them the way they should go, and when they are old they will not depart from it."

Guess I gotta thank my parents for that too. And their parents.. and their parents...

This blog and revelation I dedicate to Madison, a 2 year old girl who helped a middle age man find a piece of his soul again. Thank you.