Saturday, March 8, 2008
The Martian Child
Well, we just saw a good movie: The Martian Child. It's about a boy from Mars trying to fit in to Earth life (at least that's what he thinks). He is adopted by a science fiction writer dad, who has lost his wife two years previous to something we aren't told about. Maybe it's the Mars connection or maybe it's his longing for meaning in his life that brings him to want to adopt this boy. The whole time I felt myself being the Martian Child. This earthly experience seems so foreign and strange sometimes. Surely, this can't be where we are really from. At 53 I feel that only half of my life here on Earth has been lived. But I am so afraid of the rest of it. Muscles that were once flexible and strong, aren't. A mind that was full of imaginings is fearful. Experience, which is supposed to be a friend, isn't. Here in the birth canal called "midlife" I find myself being squeezed: not knowing where to conform or to rebel; not knowing when to sit or where to stand. Obama? Clinton? What's his name? Are those really the best we've got? Oh ya, did I mention my memory is going? What about the future? you ask. Isn't it bright with grand kids, and retirement, and leisure time? Well, maybe if I were from Earth. But I'm a Martian. I don't know how to act here. I am afraid of gravity. What if the ones whom I love leave? What if I'm bored without the routine of work? What if I'm too sick to travel or worse, what if I'm afraid to leave the house? Is "endure to the end" really all there is left in the Plan? Was this post fiction?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
What a lovely post, Pop. Transition is tough, isn't it? I'm feeling the 30 year old version of your "squeeze." Being a Martian is about always trying to get used to that gravity differential, but never being able to--having the muscle memory of life in a different space, but no way to deploy the movement that must have once been normal. A false limb. Pins and needles.
A few things to be sure of: The ones you love will always be near. There is still time to become after your first career. With endurance comes abundance (John 10:10).
so I am only 32 and I am experiencing exactly the same things, muscles, memory you name it. For me it's the transition from having 7 kids to raising 7 kids. Not sure how to feel. My last name means 'enduring' Someone once told me that enduring alone wasn't enough, you have to do it with a smile. Hang in there. On second thought don't just hang, swing. Swing like the monkeys do! And know that people in TX have, on more than one occasion, considered naming one of their kids Walt. We probably would have with #7 but we figured she wouldn't have appreciated it.
Post a Comment