A walk in the forest
A sentimental fantasy for father’s day.
I saw a teenage boy on the trail sullenly following along behind the rest of his family, and imagined that as one moment in decades of a father and son relation constellated by an annual walk in the forest.
• Son 4 years old, father 22
Wait daddy wait I wanna walk with YOU
• 14 years old, father 32
(silently to self) Why do we always have to do this? It’s so dumb.
• 24 years old, father 42
Sorry dad, I’m going to Mexico with my friends this year.
• 34 years old, father 52
Sorry dad, I’ve got meetings at work all that week and can’t get away.
• 44 years old, father 63
What? You invited my cousin?
• 54 years old, father 72
Of course I want to go, I’ve got a ton of vacation time built up.
• 64 years old, father 82
It’s okay, dad. Take my hand. Let me help you up. We can go back the way we came now.
• 74 years old, father 92
I’ll push the wheel chair. It’s a great day for a walk.
• 84 years old, father deceased
Wait daddy wait, I want to walk with you.
You remind me of a story in the Shasekishū (which I know only from the unreliable Senzaki/Reps translation in /Zen Flesh, Zen Bones/). In the story, a donor objects to a Zen master's writing "father dies, son dies, grandson dies" in a supposed tribute. But of course, as a nearly 64 year old father, I know this is perfect.