‘I’ll miss you so much,’ she said. ‘But I’m happy for you. I want you to go out and do great things. That’s all I’ve ever wanted. For you to get away from this place, and everything that happened here. I want to throw you as far as possible, so you can grow big and strong somewhere better. So you can have a good life. I don’t care if you ever think about me at all. I’ll think about you instead.’
I’ve always been wary of anyone saying “you have to be a parent to understand this”, because I think that’s really silly and lacks imagination, and I absolutely think that in this case too. But the sentiment being expressed here feels like an almost Platonic definition of love to me. While love can take many different forms, I think in its purest form it has to be selfless, and perhaps it’s just that being a parent offers an easy opportunity for you to do that.
Certainly, after becoming a parent myself, this is all I’ve ever wanted for my son – and I would consider anything else on top of that a bonus. It’s not about me, basically. Knowing he’s living a good and happy life would be more than enough to make me happy.
But that’s all in the future right now. In the meantime, he needs to put down the PlayStation controller for a few minutes, do his homework, and tidy his room. I am realistic, though, so I’ll happily settle for one of the three for the time being.
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