Teach your children well

It's another of those mornings where I am restless, pacing around the house while the family sleeps, but I cannot. If you don't believe me, look at the timestamp.

After running multiple over-analytical scenarios of house-modding, I notice that two layers of paper are taped to the picture window facing Lincolnway. One layer is a photocopy of a page from a How-to-draw-manga book I found at a bargain table years ago in the Mall of the Americas; the layer above it shows my daughter's attempts to trace manga upon the photocopy.

I carefully peeled the two layers from the window. They belong to one of my daughters, not sure which, but they do not belong on the window.

The trace looks very close to the original. In one way, that is good; daughter-unit sees and copies what she sees. In another way, not as good, in that she has copied what another creative mind has given to her, rather than creating her own vision.

In one way, good because she saw and was inspired; in another way, she did not complete the assignment. Some lines end before the idea behind them.

This is the torture and promise of rearing children. Finish what you start, or you pass the torture and promise together to them.