We lived in a bedroom for awhile. Sometimes at night I would wake to furious typing. I would look up and see her faded red hair gleaming under an oppressive desk lamp, the smoke of her blunt obscuring everything. In these moments I knew something was going to be different about us. All my friends had workaday Moms. I couldn’t imagine any of them being so sleepless as mine, awake at 3am just thinking. Unable to turn off. Who knew a crazy woman would wind up raising the happiest kids in the world? It would be 10 years before either of us realized we were poor. I’m still not sure we were. She put us out there in the real world.
“There is no greater teacher than Nature. She will kick your ass because it is her job. She does not care about you. Caring about you is my job and I wish I was fucking dead, so dress the fucking duck so we can eat.”
I know how to survive in any climate… and I can dress a fucking duck. Nothing in this world scares me, not even failure. I have done well, but I have never forgotten the fact that comfort is a lie and failure is just opportunity. Mom would rise from the grave and choke me out if I gave her credit for all this. “Nature is God. She gives us everything. EVER-Y-THANG”
To Be Continued…
