21 December 2023

Freud said everything is connected to everything. It’s a simple phrase that offers continued insight. The same is true for humans, no man is a mountain, we depend on the support of those around us and our decisions have consequences that can echo for generations. I am trying to build something that my support system can be proud of, that can also support them. Straying from that plan will alter the trajectory of my daughter’s life. My best friend in grade school came from a broken home. When I look back on it now, it was a very troubled house. There were burn marks on the carpet, the common areas filled with trash that never went out to the curb and everyone lived in their own room. Each person put their individual desires over the needs of the community and the surrounding environment crumbled. My friend would sleep over so often eventually my parents let him live at our house. I never thought much of it, he needed a place to stay and we helped him. Fast forward to the recent past, when my Army friend was kicked out of the Army with nothing and no where to go, he lived with me and my wife until he got back on his feet. After that my mother in law got sick, we took her in like everyone else. I’d cook her eggs every morning, take her to physical therapy, and she got better. All of those people are now living good lives, my childhood friend is clean from heroine and happy with a job managing a restaurant. My mother in law is healthier than I’ve ever seen her, and my Army friend has even taken in his nephew who comes from a broken family. There’s a teenage boy being cared for today because my parents cared for a teenage boy 20 years ago, it couldn’t have been planned but happens because we are all connected.