Our Brokenness

Our brokenness is breathtaking. I really mean to say that my brokenness is breathtaking. You know when you get to that point in your life when you see that those you once looked up to are only human? I mean, I'm definitely ultra-critical, but it seems that most of us grow up and see the folly of our parents because we manifest it in our own lives daily.

Those you once revered become all too human in your mind. They have always been that way, but now it is clear and before it was not. I heard once about a story which I believe was told by Rabbi Edwin Friedman, who wrote Friedman's Fables. In it, the father says (in essence) to his son, "For a time I will be god to you...and then you will have to forgive me for it." May we all be so wise to forgive our parents for their folly (I know my children will need to do so with me) and forgive ourselves for the folly of believing anyone could be god to us but God.