The Atomic Priest IV

There is nothing more annoying than your seventeen year-old daughter attempting to procure your attention by singing off-key to music you cannot hear (which may be for the best).

All she has to do is approach me and say, "Dad, I'd like to talk to you."

Wouldn't that be easier than allowing her hormones to get the best of her?

I mean, why not?

Anyway--my eldest son is graduating high school tomorrow night at 7:30 PST. I've got mixed feelings about it, as I am certain any parent would. I cann't bring myself to congratulate him, to let him know how proud of him I truly am--my biggest fear is he will join the armed services since there is little or nothing left for him to pursue in such a small community like this one. Unless he is willing to work at Wal*Mart as an associate, junior college is out of the question since Cal Grants are dead (thanks, Arnold) and financial aid like student loans require pay-back, of course. But does he want that monkey on his back right now, especially since he has no post-high school goals established beyond playing X-Box 360 all summer and "winging it" after summer melts into fall.

No child left behind is a joke.

And he really ought to consider moving out of this vacuum while he still has the chance.

Let me tell you: being the parent(s) of a high school graduate from the California public school system is a lot like playing Russian roulette. You're screwed no matter what.

I cannot help having sympathy for the boy.

In addition, California--as well as the federal government--needs to re-tool its laws which mandate eighteen as the legal age of adulthood in the United States of America.

Our son may be eighteen, but he is not even close to being a man. As a late-bloomer, I don't expect him to develop into a man until he is 32 or 36. (And even that estimate is glaringly liberal, based on not only my own experiences raising him but on his behavior both physiologically and psychiatrically, as well.)

Best thing my wife and I can do right now?

Pray.