Them

So it occurred to me this evening, as I was sequestered on the love seat in the corner reading about how wretchedly unprepared I am for retirement, I don't actually have kids anymore-- I live with these two people.

They live in my house, and they are not guests, they are not room mates; they are dependents but they are no longer tiny little tots that required occasional re-direction-- they are humans with whom I cohabitate.

They are still in grade school, but dammit, they are BIG. They have these huge feet and order from the adult menu. They now comfortably navigate the PG-13 film with none of the discomfort I feel when "sex" is mentioned 18 times. They have daunting school assignments that I wonder that I could have completed easily at their ages. They are aware of global warming, they can positively identify many countries that are located in Asia, they have faced death, racism, sexism, divorce, dementia. They promote ecology, energy efficiency, charity, global awareness. They have distinct opinions on why Britney Spears shaved her head and render strikingly accurate psychological evaluations.

Who are they?? Who are these individuals who now live with me? I am not a sloppy/lovey clutcher of babies, I do not miss the babies that they once were in spite of every procreating female over the age of 30 who INSISTED that I would. I didn't. I don't. I don't thrive on being the epicenter of dependency; these people cook, clean, and manage their money.

They are productive citizens. Which is what I always thought I would attempt to create, persons who seek to connect to their community, who feel that they are not the top of the food chain, not hopelessly separated from the environment, from nature, from life.

They are smart people, they determined on their own that they did not believe in a traditional Judeo-Christian god, they are moral (mostly) and scrupulous and curious.
And their fucking questions are getting harder for me to answer without a least a 15 minute Internet search.

These people will be here for about another 10, maybe 12 years. I think I will be able to live with them until then. In only a few more years, so I gather from the teen-aged people who live with some of my friends, they will not really want much of my time. They will commune with other people of their ilk. Then, soon enough, they will leave and it will be as if they were never here.

But of course they will return, in all of their grown-up person-hood, to tell me...