Yvette and Franklin had tried to bring up their kids to live good, virtuous, and wholesome lives.
There was Nicole. She turned up to school early every day to prepare breakfast for those students who hadn’t eaten. She was always kind and generous.
There was Yves. He helped coach the Under 14 football team. He was a good all-rounder, both in his studies and on the sports field.
There was Ingrid. She played the piano. Ever intelligent and determined, she was a shining star in her academic endeavours, and such a bubbly personality. Goodness!
There was Toby. He was sour, uncooperative, lazy, selfish, and generally a pain in the posterior. He drove his parents to despair. They didn’t know where to turn.
These days you’ll find Nicole down at the street corner – if she’s not otherwise engaged – attracting clientele.
These days you’ll find Yves in… actually you won’t find Yves. No one knows where he is.
These days you’ll find Ingrid at the drug rehabilitation centre – on the wrong side of the process.
These days you’ll find Toby at his parents’ place, when he’s not working at the local plumbing shop. He’ll be mowing his parents’ lawn, or washing their car, or something.
There’s being good and there’s being far too good for your own good!
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So true – and I prefer the first!
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A sad commentary. We have a son who WAS sort of like Toby. He’s the sergeant first class in the Army now. Strange how things turn out!
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It often can be the case!
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It was as if I was reading a super accelerated Thomas Hardy tragedy.
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The Mayor of Casterbridge I hope! My favourite!
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You never can tell
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Totally true! Thanks, Derrick.
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Be nice to all your kids, even the duds, because you never know which one will take care of you in your dotage!
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In Tamil there is a proverb that means, “you can know a tree from its shoot.”
Your story has proved this theory wrong.
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😀 My experience is that it is “sometimes” wrong – but usually “one reaps what one sows”!!
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Life sure is funny someitmes
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Such is the Dark Matter that drives the Universe.
Song of Paper arrived yesterday.
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Gosh – I’m yet to order mine… there’s a little bottle-necking of funds going on at present!
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As for me, I am only eating away funds that I am yet to earn, but that’s alright –things will even out pretty quickly once Pakistan or China or perhaps even North Korea decides to nuke us one of these days. The book has one of the dumbest introductions I have read in my life, but I look forward to reading –or mostly rereading– Cynthia Jobin tomorrow and the day after while I will be travelling.
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I look forward to reading the dumbest intro! – and the rest of course.
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Did they use your tribute to Cynthia in the book?
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They didn’t, and it was not needed. What I wrote on my blog was a purely personal thing, and it reflects my limited understanding of the poet and her work, and the loss of a friend who had come to understand my puny world with its attendant emotions. I still miss her each time I publish a post, although that seems to have happened eons ago.
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