Daughters are strange and magical creatures. Absolutely
nothing is more adorable than a baby girl. Whether she’s laughing, or staring
questioningly from beneath the bowl of oatmeal that she has just poured over
her head, she’s a tender, fragile, and lovable manifestation of the goodness
in humanity. Unfortunately, she soon embarks upon a steady course to gradually,
almost imperceptibly, shed all that is sweet and lovable.
At thirteen, the slow process is rushed to completion; the
slow melt becomes a deluge. Almost all that is sweet and lovable is swept away.
A cold, barren, bitter blade covered with thistle, shrouded in a cactus, and
wrapped in barbed wire remains. Fortunately, this state is only temporary. Once
again, slowly, imperceptibly, sweetness, with an alloy of maturity, begins to
accrue.
By the time she reaches sixteen, she shows definite human
characteristics…many of which are good. She retains the light, doe-like grace
of her early teens, adding to it the beauty of a young woman. She is… usually…a
joy to be around. Young men have noticed her; they’ve been noticing her for a
while. She has noticed their noticing, and she has been cultivating that fertile
field; she has been dabbling in the dark arts of maquillage, and has pressed into
her service potions of potent perfumes both penetrating and pervasive.
She advances in years, knowledge, talents, beauty, and
charm. Eventually, she finds a young man who has spent a number of years doing
his best to become human. He finds her irresistible; she reciprocates, seeing
in him evidence of what she hopes he may yet become. He sees in her all that he
could ever want, hoping that she will never change.
They don’t know what lies ahead. They don’t comprehend what
trials loom before them. They don’t see the obstacles that will cross their
path. They cannot conceive of the heartaches that they may face. But they know
that their parents before them didn’t understand these things either. As
parents, we don’t know what the future holds for them any more than we knew
what it held for us when we were young and in love. We did, as they do, pledge
ourselves for today, tomorrow, and forever. We did, as they do, hope for the
best, and struggle to maintain the hopes, and the dreams for the good and
meaningful life, to see our children do, and be…better than ourselves.
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