A potpourri of thought

I've been doing some more thinking about retirement. The latest is that I think I will be applying for social security as well as pension. I will be of "FRA" (full retirement age, in social security parlance) in less than a year, after all. And I'm anticipating the independence of not working full-time. I know that finances will be tight, but then they've been tight for as long as I can remember, so what's new?

It's been awhile since I have had more than a couple of weeks without preaching on a Sunday morning, and I'm looking forward to listening to somebody else's sermons. Sometimes, anyway. I don't think the Holy Spirit is through with me yet.

Of course the endless topic of speculation the last few days has been Chelsea Clinton's wedding downstream in Rhinebeck. I must say that every time I see pictures of Chelsea and Bill Clinton together, with the father-daughter bond that they obviously enjoy, I get a bit teary. It's that old parent-child tenderness that used to make me teary watching certain situation comedies (Father Knows Best, My Little Margie, and other oldies like that) even when I was a child. Part of it comes from missing my own father, after 26 years, and my own mother, after 36 years... to think that I have now lived to be four years older than my mother at her death is amazing to me. I'm sure that Hillary and Chelsea also have a close relationship, but the father-daughter thing is different.

I never gave my Dad the opportunity to escort me down the aisle. He would have been proud. But he was proud of me, anyway -- and let me know it while I was in seminary, after a first career as a teacher. I'm so grateful he was more forthcoming with praise after I reached adulthood than he had been when I was growing up. We grew into a close and loving relationship, for which I'm thankful.

So ... I'm sure that when I see a picture, finally, of Bill Clinton escorting Chelsea in her wedding dress (so much speculated upon!), I'll shed a few more tears: for tenderness, for Daddy-daughter affection, for all the years I've spent without my Dad and Mother. Such is life. But there are so many unhealthy parent-child relationships that I can only thank God for Chelsea's and Bill's, and for my parents' and mine.