My own mother doesn't recognize me anymore.
I tried to tell her tonight that I've made my choices with the best I knew how. I've told her that my choices must ultimately serve my higher good. I told her that this is not the same thing as "not caring about her" but is, instead, just trying to take responsibility for my own life.
She didn't listen. And she didn't really understand, either. As I was walking out of the room, I tried to explain to her that I'm working hard to destroy an image of her - and a very negative one at that - so that I can see her with new eyes, and she and I can start over. When she asked me what sort of image this is, I told her that it was irrelevant...she would never want to know who she has become to me...but I did tell her that all I asked was that she do the same about her image of me.
She just leaned back and said, "If what you want was to destroy an image of somebody, then you should go look in a mirror!"
Little does she know.
She said that I am not the same person she knew as a boy; I've become a chaotic, enigmatic, giant question mark to her, and she feels that must search for something still to hold on to, something to explain it. (You always fear what you don't understand, I thought.) So, she says, she holds on to those memories of me as a child. And I told her if she clung to that past version of me, she and I could never have a good relationship.
As long as she holds me up to someone I've outgrown, some perception I've destroyed and will never be again, things can never be okay between me and my mother.
I've said it before. Nostalgia is a very dangerous thing.
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That's really sad. Parents can be tough. But I think that when children become adults, it is necessary that both parties learn to reconceptualize each other. Yeah, you're different than when we met... But I still like you. Your mom should, too, because you're a really great person.
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