039/365 09/29/2025

They say you never stop being a parent. Once your kids are born and hold your heart in their tiny fat fists, you cannot escape. But that’s a lie told by parents still young enough to know…anything. Young enough to resent the late-night call or text message sent at 10 am on a Tuesday. Who sends texts at 10 am on Tuesday? Your 30-year-old child who’s run into some kind of trouble at the bank or with a credit card or car loan. Asking to call if you’re free, and then what? It’s going to be bad news or good. It’s never not news, and no matter what you’re doing, you have to drop everything and decide, Ok. This is it. You steel yourself and say, sure. You stare at the phone for what feels like an ungodly length of time, you own life spooling out and away and all the little pins of shit you thought you were going to do get flung to the stars. So that’s going to be an afternoon…