[family|child] On the nature of time and generations

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Dad at 49

That’s a photo of my Dad in Outer Mongolia, in 1992, when I and a group of friends and family went to see my parents there. (He was the U.S. ambassador to that country at the time.) Dad was 49 when we visited then. I just turned 49 this past Thursday.

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Me at 49

Sometimes when I look at [info]the_child I marvel at how old I have become. Not chronologically, but generationally. I mean, when I went to Outer Mongolia in 1992, Dad was unimaginably older than me. Now, in 2013, he is still unimaginably older than me. We’re just all 21 years older than our former selves.

It is the job of parents to go before their children. We break a trail for them through time, setting a path so they have something to rebel against, and if we’re lucky, eventually a guide to follow. [info]the_child right now is 15, and filled with that righteous anger at the weakness and venality of pretty much everyone else in the world, an emotion that seems hardwired into being aged 15. Someday she will look back at me and marvel.

The cycle of the generations proves to me that time isn’t linear, it’s cyclical, at least according to the secret calendars of the soul.

Photos © 1992, 2013, Joseph E. Lake, Jr. and T. Rotundo.

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This work by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. and T. Rotundo is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

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19 thoughts on “[family|child] On the nature of time and generations”

  1. Bellatrix says:
    June 10, 2013 at 10:49 am

    Our multigenerational household has been feeling these “fixed points in time” as I think of them. Thanks for articulating this from your family’s experience.

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