Transitions...

Quick question friends...  When was the last time you visited a playground?  Man what a difference between the new ones and those old dusty ones we had when we were kids.  As dusty as they were though, it served as a magnificent source of joy and entertainment for us all- that if we survived it!   I mean who could forget such deathly contraptions as the See-Saw to which I affectionately refer to as the "Tender Tot Cranium Cracker," or the Merry-Go-Round?  Now that was a lovely invention.  We learned from it the principal of Centrifugal force and introduced me to my first head bashing with its signature move the big kids nicknamed the "Merry-Go-RoundHOUSE!"  You know, it proved nearly impossible getting on and off of one while in motion.  A dangerous transition you'd better be ready for or be prepared to catch a flying metal bar to the face!  It is for this reason that the word "transition" leaves me with a rather “unmerry” connotation. 

 

Transitions...It's the going and the coming, the coming and the going.  A seemingly indefinite series of changes proving constant, and for children, it can prove to be rather scary - This even when not on a playground and especially so for children who are products of divorce.  It seems the divorced life is sure to provide its fair share of transitions.  It leaves you stuck in the middle dizzy...and sick as you yell for the big kids to stop spinning it so fast.  You want to get off but you can't.  The world continues at its pace and there's not too much you can do about it.

 

For me, experiencing these transitions brought about by divorce made me feel as if I was on a never ending See-Saw.  One weekend I was in the city and the next in the country.  One weekend I'm spanking my lil brother in Techmo Bowl and the next getting the beat down by my older in Double Dribble.  Looking back, I had the best of both worlds I guess.  Two parents that loved me but two lives and families to which I had a hard time totally acclimating.  I mean, I'd go away for one weekend and felt as if I'd missed something or would be.  One foot in play and the other on the ground leaving me in this virtual playground of a life grappling with contraptions created to develop its participants for the better.

 

You see, divorce didn't react in me wishes that my parents get back together but simply to minimize the emotional "Merry-Go-Round" of it all - to stop the spinning.  Now just as it is off the playground, I never wanted my kids to experience such contraptions.  It was never my intentions to have them feel what I felt and get caught under the "cranium cracker" - but such is life.  I've learned that some things we can't control and all we can do is make our best attempts to minimize our kids' injuries but still allow them to have the best of both worlds. 

 

Now as a Dad, I'm left in the same spot as my parents, loosing my kids within the playground of life wishing they had better equipment for which to develop their young minds.  Making sure they walk that fine line between joy with laughter and stitches with scars.  Helping to make their transitions just a bit easier.  It seems all we can do as parents is teach them the best way to go about living this life the right way and the best ways to have fun.  Well that and show them that I'm not too old to swing on the swings or perform my signature "Penny Drop" from the monkey bars!