thoughts

This morning as I woke up I was thinking of Brad and his situation.  I thought of helping him by discussing his past, his childhood in particular.  His parents divorces and he was tossed from one home to the other, from his father's place to his mother's, sometimes on his own.  Now if I understand things correctly, he's living with his girlfriend/fiancee, even though his sexual orientation hasn't been sorted out on his part.  He says he's not straight, perhaps at least bisexual, but he's the one that need to sort out that issue, I can't do that for him.

But getting back to the root issue, his childhood and the divorce if his parents, anyone I've known that has come from a similar situation (divorce or separation), has had issues for the rest of his/her life.  I know of a friend from a similar situation and family members in the same as well, so its from experience I mention this.

Today I read a news article in a local paper dealing with youth sex and sexual exploitation but the article I found in the Newsleader, and the same one in a Burnaby paper, avoids the root causes which are mentioned in the report that the news article is based upon.  The report itself is an overview of several reports that go into greater detail.  The root causes are an unstable home life, non-supportive parents, abuse in the home, and the list goes on.  Why does the media avoid the obvious.  Is it a bias or lack of focus?  Your guess is good as mine.

So my thoughts have followed a theme today and revert back to my friend Brad.  The thoughts I had this morning were of my reading fairy tales to his children (Grimm's Fairy Tales come to mind, of which there are several that I thought of reading, such as the Fisherman and his Wife, Frau Holle and others which come to mind).  All of these are not stories alone but also contain morals and ethics, things to live by in life.  There's a way of breaking the cycle and that begins in our childhood so that the next generation doesn't repeat the same mistakes as the generation that preceded it.  So a reading of the story before bedtime gave me the scene in my mind of not only Brad's child listening to the reading but also Brad himself.  My book is in German, so I would have to translate as I went along.  Its good that I've read these stories many times over the years.  The book itself was a gift from my mother who brought it over from a visit to Germany in 1962, so its been around for a while and seen better days.  The book itself is in good condition though the sleeve is gone years ago.

I plan to purchase a property in Nova Scotia in an area where Brad lives.  This is all in advance of my retirement.  I turn 65 in only six years from now.  My presence there will allow me to mentor and to be of assistance when necessary, such as watching his children.  Its the least I can do for him.  I feel obligated as if this was decided before I was born.  Everything in life happens for a reason and this situation is not alone in that.  Many factors are at play here even before I buy a property out there on the east coast.  One factor is my health and the slower pace in the Atlantic provinces should help to lessen the health issues if not resolve them completely.  We shall see... I hope you've all had an awesome weekend!

~ Volker