Uncle Buck was on television on Saturday night. I noticed the mother and daughter from Field of Dreams were both in the film, though, not as mother and daughter. Interestingly enough, both films were released in 1989. Field of Dreams was released May 5, 1989 (filming began on May 25, 1988) and Uncle Buck on August 16, 1989 (filming began on January 4, 1989). The child actress can now be seen on HBO’s Winning Time and the older actress has been married to the great Ed Harris since 1983. For the heck of it, I entertained the thought of Kevin Costner and John Candy switching roles for both films.
I finally pulled the band-aid off and looked at my 401k since half of it went to my ex. I was anticipating it shocking me, but not so much because of the money she got, but its rate of return for the year is down 27.82%.
Someone after church asked me why I don’t allow my kids to sit with their mother during church. I had to explain it’s not like that. When we first separated, we all sat together on the same row, but the kids sat between us. Later, she asked I no longer sit with them and stated the children will choose who they want to sit by. After a while, she said if they were with her during her possession schedule, they must sit with her. I tell the kids I’ll never keep them from sitting with their mother, and they always have a choice when they are in my possession.
When I was married, I felt I was more concerned about saving for retirement than my wife. When she was ready to go back to work after helping to raise our children, she wanted to work either part time and/or for institutions that wouldn’t benefit her Texas teacher retirement plan. I encouraged her to go back to public school to teach so we could better prepare for retirement. Little did I know she had this plan just to take half of mine and get a head start. She was more financially minded than what I took her for.
I’ve mentioned how I often think of myself as Luke and my ex as Darth Vader, minus the father/son relationship. Luke believed Anakin was still alive and good was in Vader, and I have similar feelings towards my ex. I’m not seeking reconciliation, but I hope there’s enough good we can at least have a cordial parenting relationship. I thought of that recently as I watched the final episode of the Obi-Wan Kenobi series, especially the last sentences Vader and Kenobi said to each other. Vader told Kenobi that it wasn’t Kenobi who killed Vader, it was Anakin. Likewise, I didn’t change my ex’s way of thinking, she chose to change it herself. And like Kenobi, I have to accept the change, move on, and focus on myself. There’s nothing like Star Wars to teach a life lesson.
Sometimes I tell BoyGeeding and DaughterGeeding things I wish my parents told me, or things I wish I could remember they told me. Recently, I told them that no matter what they do in life, I will never be disappointed in them. I may become disappointed in some actions they chose, but I will always be proud of them.
In case you ever what CAPTCHA stood for, it’s “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart”.
I bet there was a buzz in Evangelical churches yesterday with the Supreme Court’s decision to reverse Roe vs. Wade. I bet many want to take this momentum and overturn gay marriage and who knows what else..
Of course, I’m disappointed in the Supreme Court’s decision on overturning Roe vs. Wade. But, I could see it coming when Mitch O’Connell refused to hear Obama’s nomination after Scalia’s death. I had a feeling that move encouraged conservative voters to show up and cast their ballot because they have fought hard over this one particular issue, even if that choice was Donald Trump. O’Connell is a shrewd and ruthless politician who gets results, no matter the consequence.
I always felt abortion was a symptom of a larger problem. The actual issue is dealing with unwanted pregnancies. And that’s part of even a larger issue, access to proper education. We can only solve the issue with proper sex education. But that won’t happen because conservatives are scared of how it’s taught and unwilling to compromise on making contraception accessible. When you curtail unwanted pregnacies, you curtial the number of abortions. But that’s all mute now.
