The Magician

by Rebecca Serle

If mothering is a long con, then fatherhood is a shell game.

Seth looks at parenthood like a camping trip. You’ll probably get a little dirty and a little lost and forget some things you need, but think of the pictures!

“I want you to know where they come from,” she has always told me. “That way, you don’t get rid of anything important.

I think about telling her my fear. That my child will not truly know me without knowing her. That in order to be a mother, I need mine.

“There is too much suffering here when really what we have is love,” she’d say. She was right, and she wasn’t. Denying grief is a lot like denying love.