Reflections

I have often wondered about homelessness and last week it assumed a new meaning for me. Before you start wondering where all this is leading to, I would ask what image comes to your mind when you hear some one is homeless (without a home).
Well, from July 9 to August 7 this year, my family and I will technically be without a home of our own- i.e. homeless. Please don’t panic! The reason is that we would be closing the sale of our current home on July 8 and the house we are buying will only be available for us to take possession of no earlier than August 7.
So are we going to be sleeping in our nap sacks on the streets in a cold strange city and neighbourhood? Not quite. Are we going to be having our shower in the open? That would have been very eco-friendly even though it would be aesthetically offensive and distasteful. Before your mind starts going on a creative excursion,none of the above is about to happen. While we would be without our own home, we would be hosing down a suite in a luxury furnished apartment for the period of our ‘homelessness’ until the current owners our new home ship out East (they are a military family- protectors of our country) and the head of the family having done two tours in Afghanistan, the least we can do at this point is be patient. Yes we will.
The sermon (what really is the difference between a sermon and a homily?) at Mass on Sunday centred on Corpus Christi; and at some point, the reverend father reminded us that the child is a father to the man. Does this sound confusing and somewhat convoluted? He went on to say the teenager you see today is a product of the the child you invested in during his young formative years. So when you are wondering ( as many adults are wont to do) about certain behaviours of the modern day teenager, the answer is not too far off. It is the yield of the investment made years ago when he was a kid.
That then brings me to the ‘trend’ I see increasingly as we all chase after financial empowerment ; that of absentee parenting. We all seem caught up with capitalist pursuits (please don’t get me wrong, capitalism is not bad in itself) that we under perform in the other and equally important arena of parenting and child mentoring. The risk I see here is that like a friend of mine in Nigeria remarked, we become only sources of financial comfort to our children and a lot less of emotional and physical support and relevance. It is little wonder therefore why when our children no longer look up to us for financial succour, we pale in our importance in their lives.
I am continuing to reflect on this. Perhaps you are too. All in all, family /work balance is tough to achieve in an increasingly capitalist world.
I would like to end on a high. I promised to report on Papa’s track meet at the Regional finals of Thursday last week.
He ran to instruction - exploding right off the blocks and with high knee actions and aerodynamic arm swings, led the pack right to the end. I thought he had pulled it off but it was adjudged a photo finish and he was given a silver medal. His timing was an improvement on the Monday city race so we are OK. Even more worthy of note was that the night before the race, we had to ice his ankle and had him wearing his ankle brace during the race. For all those who were rooting for him, I say thanks a lot. We love you.

Tomorrow, Danju has his school’s soccer tournament and it will be four soccer games in one day starting at 8am. Holy cow! How could one fit in four soccer games between 8am and 4pm on the same day and expect optimal output. Oh I forgot, we are a hockey nation and soccer is more like an after thought. Oh Canada…

Good night friends of the Diary of a Loving Daddy. We shall meet again.