new city, new job, new life : happy birthday Panganay !

WHILE it may or may not be true that children are first to reap the harvest of their parents’ success, children are certainly the first to bear the fruits of the former’s failure.  By being (literally or figuratively) closest to the point of impact, by being most closely identified with the glory or notoriety of the family name, and by being so dependent on the parents’ and family’s fortunes, children are in every sense helpless babes hostage to whatever ill-wind befalls the father, or in some cases the mother. *****     *****     ***** In this regard, son Panganay among my brood (of Panganay, Ganda and Bunso) has borne the brunt of all my failures and shortcomings in my parenthood experiment.  He was there to endure my immaturities, my plans-gone-awry, my aborted careers, and the many times I came up short as a provider and nurturer.  Time and learning from my initial mistakes have helped soften the blow for his brother and sister, but if hunger and adversity were effective teachers, then Panganay would surely have been a masteral degree holder in the school of Life’s Realities by now.  No thanks to me. Instead of being bitter and resentful toward me, he has instead built upon the barren earth of his youth and has turned it into arable, vibrant loam of a rewarding career.  True he has his own shortcomings and immaturities as a twentysomething, but these pale in comparison to how he has grasped being a citizen of the post-modern, interconnected and sensory-overloaded New World.  Along the way he has forgiven me for not being an ideal parent, and I am grateful for that. *****     *****     ***** The last time I saw Panganay was some months back just before he left Wellington for a new life in Auckland, the premier city of New Zealand.  The reboot was both symbolic and actual for him.  New job, new city, new flat (of course), new everything for him, and of course he would be picking up new friends, new dancing, groups and partners (Latin American dancing is his passion).  Only the few memories he has of  Marikina, Paco, Cainta, and of course, Wellington, will remain.  Everything else will be sacrificed on the altar of Embracing The Future. He is well-equipped to handle all of these, for after all, he is a child of the Twenty-first Century, and champion of the Brave New World.  I am just proud to have supplied my half of his DNA.  Today is the first day of the rest of his life. Happy birthday Panganay !  Love you and miss you!