Dojo #66 – The Family Sacrifice

Hi Dojo, I’m here for my random sharing. This topic is so in sync with my experiences lately with my adult son, so I have something to bring to the dojo. I am back and forth to Melbourne to visit my mother now that the city has opened up. I drove with my two children for a family lunch two weeks ago. My son, in the back seat, kept up a steady stream of vitriol about my neglect in not vaccinating him as a child, how I sent him to a school that taught him nothing about reality, and why can’t I take criticism on the chin and apologize?? It went on, uninterrupted, for 35 minutes. I know because that’s how long it takes for the drive from our home to the next town. I put a stop to it because I had to concentrate on driving for the next 2 and a half hours. He was being a Steven haha!
 
I had to sleep on this experience to find the gifts in it. It brought up two massive things from each perspective, while holding the truth that this was fully based in love for each other. I saw in his outpouring, his fear of death. He’s only begun to live! How could I not have prepared him by vaccinating him as a child so that, although he would have no recollection, he could rest in the knowledge that he survived the experience, no big deal. Now the decision would be his to make. How the heck too, were stories and mythology of times long, long ago in lands far, far away going to help him respond to the 21st Century?  I saw and had compassion for his perspective. 
For me, I realized that people would vaccinate, or not, based on what it means to them to ‘live’. Would my feelings change towards my own children if they chose that path?  Our common ancestry, the evolutionary path possibly very different. I felt you Linda!