A Nurse, A Doctor, and a Minister
August 15, 2010
My mother has recently been classified as being moved to "Comfort Care" which I guess is a somewhat touch-feely euphemism for hospice, although I don't doubt there's some variation on what they're actually doing.
Anyway, with that comes some thinking, and I was reflecting today that my mother said of her three children that she hoped one would become a nurse, one would become a doctor, and one would become a minister.
Well, my sister's a nurse. One down (Gee, Beth, you're so easy).
My brother is a professor, i.e., doctorate, although the doctorate is a DMA, or Doctor of Musical Arts, which is equivalent to a PhD, but instead of writing a research thesis, since he was getting his doctorate in music composition and theory, he wrote an orchestra piece and had it performed. So, let's say "doctor" with a qualifier in there.
Hmmm. No, not a minister. On the other hand, I could argue that even with my modest book sales my, ahem, "sermons" probably reach a far larger audience than most ministers' (and hopefully don't have the common effect sermons often have of putting their audience to sleep, ahem), although I'm not sure my repetitive and egregious use of words like "fuck" are often heard in sermons (or maybe I'm just going to the wrong churches).
Well, 1 and 1/2 for a 50% hit-ratio, that's not bad. And as far as I know there are no serial killers among the three of us and we're all reasonably happily married with reasonably healthy and well-adjusted children (and even grandchildren in the case of my sister), I doubt my mother has anything to complain about, at least in terms of what became of her children. Well done, Mom, well done.
So, thoughts? What did your parents have in mind for you?
posted by Mark Terry at 4:38 PM
7 Comments:
My mother wanted me to be a writer. I wanted to be an astronaut. Mom got her way, and space exploration is the poorer for it.
Actually, it was in a medical journal that law, music, and medicine required the widest breadth of information to know. Music was second, but I can't remember what was first: either law or medicine. Given that it was a medical journal, I'm assuming medicine. :D
My mother desperately wanted me to be a secretary. Still does.
My parents wanted me to be something. Something not limited by women's roles in society. They also wanted me married off--so yes, the irony of that is hilarious. I presume if I had become a married surgeon, that would have fit the bill.
Any wonder marriage #1 was over in under a year? LOL!
My mom wanted me to be a teacher. I followed along enough to get almost a masters in education, and then realized it really wasn't for me. And so I spent 15 years screwing around, came back to writing, and started teaching adult ed this summer. So mom's got something a little more respectable to tell the bridge ladies than "my daughter writes erotica and mostly violent SF and fantasy."
Sorry to hear about your mom. My dad had hospice care and it was really very good.
Oddly enough I've never thought much about your question. Possibly because, when I do think about it, I realize I have no idea at all what my parents had in mind for me. If they had something in mind, it was never communicated to me in any way. Considering the state I was in as a teenager they probably were just hoping I'd make it to adulthood.
Not incarcerated ...
Gee Jon, how're you doing on that?
Post a Comment
<< Home