Twenty-Year Legacy

I haven't been writing because I've been reading. I picked up "The Time Traveler's Wife" a couple of days ago and barely did anything until I put it down this afternoon. It was different. Different in a good way. The end left me yearning for more and wondering...Is that the sign of a good writer? Or a writer that dropped the ball?

Anyway, except for a lingering cough I'm all better.

Well, except for the fact that I've had my steadily advancing age thrown in my face this week...I got an email from my HS class president. Apparently, it's time for my 20th Reunion.

There is NO WAY that 20 years have passed. Just last Friday I was at a mixer with my girlfriends. We were dancing to Springsteen and REO Speedwagon...we TP'd the football players houses before the big game...we got Connie's brother to buy us beer then drove to the new construction site to drink it and talk about boys. I was skinny. And unlined. I had made few mistakes, but had few experiences. I could see my whole world from my front porch and I was content with that. When I think if the road I have traveled for the past 20 years, I am exhausted but wonder: why have I not gone further? Twenty years is sufficient to discover penicillin. Or gravity. To create a nuclear warhead. And what have I done? I've cleaned countless bathtubs. I've emptied thousands of dishwashers; made a zillion beds. But I get up every day and the same chores need to be finished again. Just so I can go to bed and start over tomorrow.

But twenty years is also enough time to instill values...morals...ethics in my children. Dillon will be an adult in less than 2 years. I've worked 16 years toward the goal of making him an independent human being. One that can be trusted on his own to make the right choices. To choose the high road. To perservere. It was almost too easy. Did I do it right? Is there something I missed? I don't think so.

Twenty years has passed in the blink of an eye and a new generation is dancing to Usher and Bowling for Soup. They know to wear their seatbelts and not drink and drive. They are the legacy that moms like me will leave behind. They are not successful because they grew up with clean floors and gourmet dinners. They are successful because we have taught them to be.