your parents

i find this old photo of us & my first thoughts are wow, we look so young, & wow, so much has happened since then, & how did i always manage to keep my hair that color?, & what ever happened to that necklace?, & what a crazy day that was, & what an amazing day that was, & wow, how far we have come. i look at this photo & when i look at it, i feel: these are teo's parents. & if there is any one photo i can give to my son to remember his parents by, this would be it. i am not sure why, & then i am exactly sure why. it's because naturally, i am not smiling and bubbly. naturally, i am like this: maybe a little bit serious, never apologetic, maybe a little bit silly. naturally, teo, your father's core is made of love & kindness & humility, but entwined with that love & kindness & humility is a very conscious knowledge of where he came from & where he went to; an honest acknowledgement of how hard it was to get there & how much work it took. he is a product of oppression manufactured by light & resistance. & all of these things in us brought us to you; brought us to making you, brought us to keeping you, brought us to loving you, will bring us to raising you. because our journeys have created your journey. & i hope that your journey will create a path for someone else, whether it is the path of your future child's or that of anyone else you will inspire. because it is impossible to be our son without shining. because no matter what your journey looks like or what you do or what you choose not to do, you will always be shining. i promise.