I learned a really valuable lesson yesterday, it’s a little Spanish expression on of my friends discussed over lunch. I was listening to her talk about the trials and tribulations of raising two teenage daughters. Having no first hand experience myself, I quickly explained that all my advice was book learned, or according to tradition, but it was certainly not from any first hand experience. Although, I did detect s a certain similarity to some of the trials and tribulations my own mother has experienced (and to Ma Wetzel’s vexation, still to this day). The expression my friend had was this:
“Del dicho, al hecho
hay much trecho.”
“From the cradle to the grave, life is treacherous?” I asked. “From what you say to what you do, there is a big trench.” Or something like that. I guess it’s a poetic expression in its native tongue, and all I know is it’s easy to lecture about this stuff — raising kids — but it’s hard to put it into practice, especially with one’s own offspring. To cap it all off, we both reacted in a harsh way when she brought up the fact that he daughter thinks me and the mom are soul mates. Now, this girl’s a Sagittarius (the mom, the daughter is a teenage Scorpio), and the Sag reacted in a typically Sagittarius way, she heard her daughter say those words, “soul mate,” and I didn’t hear from her for months, maybe years.
