…and to be reared by a father and a mother…
Posted on June 18th, 2006 by John Mansfield
Miles and I were visiting in his house when a call came from the hospital. Miles’ older brother Flint, a PRCA bull rider, had broken his leg in practice. We drove down to see him, and when we arrived, Miles and Flint’s parents, Cathy and Rondo, were already in the room. It was great to see both of them and chat around their son’s bed. At one point, Cathy turned serious and said to Flint with concern “Well, I hope you’ve finally learned your lesson.†“What lesson!?†Rondo fumed.
A year or so later, Rondo would fall asleep with a pot boiling, and the smoke would kill him. Four years and a week after that, a brain tumor would kill Flint.
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22 Responses to “…and to be reared by a father and a mother…”
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Um……did you forget to finish your post? Not getting it.
“…and to be reared by a father and a mother…” is a line from the Proclamation on the family.
This post could be a wry example of how a family was able to gather in Flint’s time of need, and that one never knows when the end will come.
Thoughts along those lines have been close to my heart this week, as my father struggles with his health and a momentous, awful-yet-glorious milestone in life, and my brother struggles with a life-changing event. We’re fortunate to have family in those moments.
Dunno.
I’m a little confused by the post as well. Heterosexual relationships are best when confronting death?
Gives a whole new idea to “I don’t know how to quit you.”
The point is that our society is so freaking risk averse that people are afraid to take a walk in the park without safety restraints.
Society used to accept risk and death as something ever-present and unavoidable. Now we’ve deluded ourselves into thinking we can control death. We’ve become careful and killed all the joy of living. Instead of playing the game of life “to win” we play “to avoid losing.”
So … did I guess correctly?
Yikes.
I’m with Adam, this post is kinda creepy. I hope there will be an explanation soon.
I think the point is that the men in society would all be quickly gone without the moderating sense of our women. Flint lived to die of natural causes, Rondo never learned any sense because he could not listen to his wife.
Is this it?
Do we get a prize?
I’m gut laughing. “I wish I knew how to quit you.”
You know, that was basically a dumb book. Not the one you wrote above, John, that is so profoundly meaningful none of know what you’re talking about. That other one.
I think this is a symbolic way of saying that Millennial Star is dead…
Would someone write to me at jredelfs at gmail dot com and tell me what is going on with Millennial Star? How come there is so much talk about its demise? Have the people who have posting privileges on the blog just given up on it, or what? –John W. Redelfs
No, no!
I’m telling ya. I’m going to win this one.
Mom makes a big stink of her son riding in something so “dangerous” as the rodeo.
Then he goes and dies of something positively domestic.
Moral: Mom, like many of us, completely missed the boat on where the true risks in society lie (driving and at home generally).
Is choosing the wrong ISP then a true risk?
Seth may be onto something - an “Annie Moore” situation.
It just always struck me as utterly ridiculous that my parents and acquaintances always cringe at the idea of me hiking up mountains alone (that’s hiking, not climbing). Then they would cheerfully bid me goodbye as I commuted across town to college.
The fact is, I’m probably statistically ten times safer soloing peaks in remote southern Utah than I or any of you reading this are right now sitting at your computers. I’m certainly safer up there than I would be commuting on the Interstate on a normal day.
This is an irritating experiment.
No JKS, I think it isn’t irritating. I wasn’t ready for it, to be sure; but, I think that it is brave and interesting. I like it.
Yes, very brave and very interesting. Truly magnificent.
I got it, it is some kind of Buddhist Koan, and I agre brave, interesting and disturbing all at once.
It reminds me of more of snipe hunt for clueless campers, or a fake people blog experiment than something “magnificent.”
Was much better than Cats. I’d read it again and again …
Yeah, sorry JKS I should have closed 17 with /sarcasm tags.
LOL, jjohnson. You were joking? And I couldn’t even tell. I can’t stop laughing. Suddenly, I’m not nearly as irritated with this experiment. You have made it all worthwhile.