A Box of Chocolates

   When you have kids you never know what you're going to get. And how can you? You've got a man and a woman deciding to create a brand new person for starters. (This thought in itself is fraught with unknowns.)They are two very different sexes. Couldn't do it otherwise I don't think. But who knows these days... They come from different backgrounds, different circumstances and different points of view. Why on earth would we think we'll get or beget (if you want to get biblical about this) people that are just like us. When we're not even like each other! Doesn't happen. With this many genes humming around absolutely anything can show up. Oh one may have his father's eyes, but another may have eyes no one on either side has ever seen before. Hey... don't go staring at the mailman's eyes just yet. Remember, blue and brown make purple. That doesn't sound right but, a light shade of purple?? Elizabeth Taylor's much touted violet peepers? It's possible. Green and brown make hazel. And so on.    
   As Forest Gump said "Life is just a box of chocolates - you never know what you're going to get."
   Take my youngest son. I know for a fact that neither his dad or I would ever (not in a million years) think of jumping out of an airplane. He did. Called me from the Moab Desert, laughing and babbling that he'd just gone sky-diving - it was great! Fabulous! Sweeeet!  "Didn't think I should tell you about it until I landed!" Good thinking, Drew. And Walt needn't worry about the mailman. Uh uh. Not the sky-diving type. We also got pictures of Drew four wheeling through the red-rock canyons of Colorado, kicking up dust, sliding on two wheels. And another interesting one of him perched on an overhanging outcropp of Rocky Mountain, approximately 5,000 ft above the desert floor.Which is 5,000ft above sea level. Nothing between him (the can of beer in his hand) and the ground, except blue sky. This kid lived his whole life on the edge.
   At seventeen, he jumped off the London subway one station too soon, leaving his dad and I screaming through the closed window, mouthing at him to catch the next train we'll meet you at the next stop!!!  We hadn't a clue where were underneath this vast city, but somehow he did what he was supposed to and showed up at the next station. Same thing in NYC - only this time we didn't see him for two hours - he'd taken a trip to the Bronx and back.
    He came in one night (2 in the morning actually) INCENSED! He'd been given a ticket. What happened, Drew - weary, bleary-eyed parental inquiry. "Well there was this guy - going so slow that if he'd slowed down anymore I swear his car would have died. Cop car! So I finally got sick of it and overtook him and he pulled me over madder 'n' hell, and ticketed me! For nothing! What's that about??" I'll tell you "what that's about." Twisty mountain roads in the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia, Drew's wearing dark glasses - and his earring - and a goatee... Of course he pulled him over! "What were you thinking???"
   At sixteen he and three buddies (whose parents are also wondering about heritage issues) went mudding on a builders lot with their brand new learner's licenses. One of them got stuck in the mud. Why not. So, another of them tried to pull him out and - got stuck in the mud.
   Drew to the rescue. Attaches one of the stuck cars to his tail gate, revs the truck, spins out throwing mud twenty feet in the air and loses both his bumper and his tailgate. Buried in the mud. No problem. There's a crane standing around doing nothing so one of them climbs into the cab and starts it up. Somehow both stuck cars and Drew's wrecked truck got home.
   At times like this you think - no you don't - you can't think and speech fails you as you stare at your teenager dripping mud all over the kitchen floor. All you can do is pray - and thank God he's still alive and try not to kill him before the prayer finds it's way upstairs. 
   So you see, you just don't know what you're going to get when you get into this birthing process. It seems as though Walt and I spent our lives trying to keep Drew alive. Sometimes you can, and sometimes you can't. Because in the end this child of ours is his own person. With his own mind and a set of genes we've never heard of. He is also the kindest, least judgemental person I have ever met. And James Dean good-looking.
   And look what happened to him...
   It's all about the blueprint we bring into this world with us. A blueprint for all the lessons we've decided to learn in this lifetime.
   Bright stars are aligning for tomorrow's blog.