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THE CIRCLE OF FEAR

We bring children into this world.
We nourish and provide for them as best we can.
We watch over them as they sleep at night and hold the back of their new bicycle as they learn to ride a two-wheeler.
We protect them with our lives, watch them grow and eventually they leave the inner sanctum of heart and home to walk among the wolves.
They marry, have children of their own and radiate joy.
The circle of life.
We pray for them, worry about them, rejoice in their accomplishments and weep for their inevitable heartbreaks.
Our parental primal instincts emerge and we struggle against the riptides of life to shelter them from the unwelcome eventualities of the world.
But we cannot.
And that is the greatest fear of all.

NAR © 2023

33 thoughts on “THE CIRCLE OF FEAR”

    1. Thank you, Les! We live near our sons and their families and do a lot of babysitting. I have friends who tell me I’m a fool for giving up my free time to watch my grands. Isn’t that what families do? I think it’s time for some new friends! Thanks for sharing your thoughts. ❤︎

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  1. If either of my sons asked for my advice, I’d worry about them because that’s so contrary to their personality. I raised them to be self-sufficient, self-motivated and not fear acting on their own instincts. Yes, the world is a mess, but the world has always been a mess, and their generation will try to leave it intact for the next generation. Our job is done; now we get to play with grandchildren!

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    1. Excellent comment, Misky
      Fortunately, my sons are the same way. There has to be a major turning point in their lives for them to seek out our help and then it’s only to bounce ideas off us. This is a generalized commentary of our society as a whole and how dangerous the world has become. Yes, prior generations worried about the state of the world – and that was before AI and nuclear weapons, politicians run amok, etc.

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      1. I might’ve taken it all too literally – my mistake. But you did cause me recall that warfare has always been horrific and a worry for anyone on the receiving end of it. People were horrified at what the longbow could do from such a vast distance, solders complaining (as they do now) that no one looked their enemy in the eye any longer. Then came the crossbow. Then gun powder and muskets with bayonets attached. The human race is an inventive species.

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  2. In my case, I don’t see it as fear. I rejoice that she is out there and able to make decisions for herself. If she gets some of those decisions wrong… meh, I’ve made enough badduns… There’s no guarantee that I’d do better.

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    1. That’s a wonderful attitude, Pete. It’s useless worry, to be sure, and extremely difficult to shrug off when we look around the world and see what a massive mess we’re in. I’m supremely grateful my kids grew into fine adults with decent brains in their heads!
      PS: Get back to me when you’re a grandpa; that’s a whole new ballgame!

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      1. Even without decent brains, you still have to let them get on with it. Whatever they decide, it has to be their decision, I think.
        But all the same, it’s nice when they (voluntarily) ask for advice. I don’t even think about being a grandpa. I have only tenuous links with my daughter so I doubt I’d see a grandchild much.

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  3. well said. as gibran wrote,

    “You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
    For they have their own thoughts.
    You may house their bodies but not their souls,
    For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
    You may strive to be like them but seek not to make them like you.
    For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.”

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