what a short strange trip it's been

anna & i have crossed that threshold where our child, nick, finished primary education & is in transition from childhood to young adulthood.  hie!  even today nick received in the post a questionnaire from the Fed District Court to determine eligibility on serving in a Fed jury!  whaaaat?!  already adulthood!  whatever labels we want to use to delineate & define the varied stages of our human being nick graduated from high school yesterday.  it was a marvelous thing.  but it wasn't mine or anna's day in the way that it was for nick who is just at the very threshold of life & still growing into person he is & to come.  i am shocked by how fast, how fleet, how quicksilver, time moved as it passed from the moment we brought baby nick home from the hospital to this day watching him cross the dais in acceptance of his high school diploma.  wow!  & to our son, nick, what seemed like a short, strange trip to your parents is to you the length of your lifespan.  to quote a song, you've only just begun.  our world that we give you is beautiful, savage, strange, sweet, mean & kind.  i can only imagine the marvels that await you.  so also, its cruelties.  but there is no word of advice, or counsel, i can give you but one, & that word is experience.  experience the shit out of life.  we have only one.  but here i am shocked into wonder, again, as i try to grasp that first stage of adulthood.  i think i remember mine own well.  &, to be quite honest & fair, i had a fucking blast.  i want the same for our son.  so go forth, nick, have a blast, be kind, & discover what you will become.