The Hits Just Keep On Coming

Last week was wonderful. Lil and I went to Girl's Camp where Lil was the director and I was the Director's Wife.

Role-reversal is alive and well in our family.

Justice stayed with here Granny (Rosaleen) for the first part of the week, where she got to play with her brothers quite a bit, and then stayed with my parents (Nana and Papa to the uninitiated) for the last part of the week. Nana takes Justice to Coco's for breakfast and so she's a big hit with the hot-chocolate loving 9 year-old.

The down turn came on Saturday or Sunday (I was too tired from archery, hiking, camping and pontooning to recall exactly) when Rosaleen called to tell us she had heard from Shirley (Justice's great-grandmother) that Carmen, Justice's biological mother, had been taken into custody for a host of issues. When she was, the warrents out for her in Riverside also came up, so she'll finally be facing those as well.

Now, I can't confirm or deny that Carmen is actually in custory. Nor do I know what the issues were, and I don't know if she's guilty, innocent or just getting some poetic justice, as it were.

As with the my love of sushi, I just don't know the truth.

The fun part was that it came up with Justice. Lil stated the facts as she knew them, but Justice, ever her mother's adoring fan, flatly denied that there could be any truth to these rumors. Yesterday, she insisted on calling Jonah (latest social worker) and hearing about it for herself. Whether or not Jonah will actually know the status of Carmen is open for question.

Jonah's primary concern, and rightly so, is Justice, not her mother.

This, of course, brings into interesting light the loyalty that children have for their parents. Good, bad or otherwise, even when we children hear or experience the worst that their parents can give them, they tend to be loyal up to, including and well beyond a fault. One is reminded of the medieval Japanese samurai who, if given the command, without being forced would fall to their knees, pull out thier shortsword, make not one but two cuts (one horizontal one vertical) into their stomachs and then, without making a sound, allow their own head to be cut off.

I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but it certainly should give all parents a moment of pause when thinking about raising their children. Tabla rosa - blank slate - is an apt description of how children arrive into this world, and anything can be written across that slate. Yet, unlike the blackboards of our school days, these slates cannot be wiped clean if a mistake is made. Hate, anger and abuse will always be a part of the graffiti as will any joy, kindness or wisdom.

Tell me again why anyone would want that responsibility?