PARKER

The picture you see at the top of this page is me holding my Grandson, Parker. He is almost 2 years old, he is the first grandchild to come to our family, he is adored and loved by all and he came to us profoundly deaf.

As much as I get mad at God and dis-agree with the way He does things, I have to admit He seems to always get it right. (I’m sure He’s glad for my approval.) I mean how can the supposed calamity of a child coming to earth without the ability to hear the smallest whisper of noise, ever be claimed as something good? It fly’s against all conventional wisdom. Parker is deaf……we should be sad. Simple.

So why has this child been a focal point, a source, of immense joy and laughter for so many people over the last two years? Where’s the tragedy? Where did the sadness go?

God, you are one Tricky Fellow.

Parker can say more with his eyes than most of us can with a four year degree. His smiles, frowns and hilarious facial contortions easily display every nuance of mood and feeling so there is no doubt what he wants to “say”. By the way, that facial rubber-banding earned him the early name of “Gummi-bear” when he was just a few months old. What a crack-up.

Parker has been the catalyst to the maturation of his own parents. He came, they saw, he conquered. Faced with the so called “adversity” in the ….handicap?.... of their little son, Brooke and Bobby have been catapulted to a dimension of un-conditional love that most of us take years to reach. What a blessing he has been to their marriage, a specific little human spirit, sent at a specific time, to a specific couple, that helped them in exactly the right way, in a time they needed it.

God, you are one Tricky Fellow.

This child has brought our whole family closer together. I mean it’s impossible to bicker and fight and contend with each other while Parker is doing his Happy Feet routine. You can’t argue and roll on the floor with laughter at the same time, it just doesn’t work. Parker is a nexus point, a sort of crossroads where we can all come together and agree in love. His very presence helps bring us to a place of sweetness and peace.

He is having surgery today. The odyssey that his parents went through to get this done is a story in and of itself. That process alone has been a successful lesson for 20 year old kids about patience, perseverance and faith. If all goes as planned, today Parker will begin the journey towards hearing. We excitedly wait for the birth of his auditory sense just as we waited breathlessly for him to be born. Similar feelings. Similar hopes.

But if what happens next is even close to what happened at his birth and coming, then look out world! I mean come on!....Talking Eyes, Gummi-Bear Expressions, Happy Feet and now hearing?

God, you are one Tricky Fellow.

To whom this site is dedicated

This little corner of the universe is dedicated to the confused and befuddled, the confunded and muddled.
To those who laugh out loud while crying inside and who know what it means to feel all alone in a room full of people.
To anyone who thinks that, if people could suddenly read their thoughts, if people only knew what they were really like, a mob complete with torches and pitchforks would immediately appear at the front door to arrest and exile them from the human race.
If you are an actor who is trying to be a director, if you try and sink battleships with bb guns, if you feel like you are straightening the deck chairs on a sinking Titanic, read on.
If you live in quiet desperation, if the corrosive thread called fear seems to weave its way through much of your life and you waste endless hours trying to solve problems you will never have, this is your site.

WARNING -

If you are one of those people who are always sticking their head out the window of a passing school bus shouting"we're number one!!", if you think that you are "worthy", if you are one of those tough people who gets going when the going gets tough and if pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps is just part of your exercise progarm, (I'm sure you are also in great shape) you should probably move on.
God bless you, but we speak two different languages and you will simply not understand.