". . . little shall I grace my cause

In speaking for myself. Yet, by your gracious patience,

I will a round unvarnish'd tale deliver . . ."

(William Shakespeare's Othello, I.iii.88-90)

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Flashes

You know how sometimes the facts that live in your head just hit you all at once in a different place?

I had one of those moments today. I was dropping my senior-in-high-school son off at his college math class. As he walked away from the car he turned around and gave me a little wave. It was right out of the movie Big--you know, that moment at the end when Margaret Colin is watching grown-up Tom Hanks walk down the leaf-strewn street, only to briefly glance away and look back to find that he has changed again into his little boy self?

I had a flash like that today. For a fleeting moment, I saw in my great big 18-year-old man the little boy he once was.

I cried all the way home.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes. Sometimes I look and see the baby they were, sometimes it's the man they will become. Sometimes it's both at the same time and then I really need a hanky.

Melody said...

I did the same today, with my little baby girl. Who you KNOW is not a little baby girl. She said, "I am NOT a baby," and got really grumpy when I said, "You'll ALWAYS be my baby."