graduation dinner

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The ambiance was 'American pub,' the food was mediocre, my younger son got into a verbal joust with his sister, my wife and daughter mixed it up, my older son sent me hand signals to keep my mouth shut, my younger son left the gathering, and the other five of us at the table were left under a pall of tension and dissatisfaction. So much for the celebration dinner aimed at my younger son who is to be graduated from high school today. No one had dessert.

My daughter told me later that she wasn't going to apologize for anything: "I was right." I did not think quickly enough to say that being right is not the most important thing in life, but I will try to slip it in somewhere today. My younger son, meanwhile, was convinced that his grudge against his sister was firmly in place. I coaxed a less rigid attitude out of him later as he sat on the porch with a vanilla-flavored, wood-tipped cigar that appeared to offer some solace in a fractious world.

Family life, family feud.

Graduating from moment to moment.

"Fun" is a strangely overrated life-target ... popular but overrated.
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