Let's all do the time warp..yeah!!
One of the things that kept on oddly occuring to me as I drove to Massachusettes the other week, it was really more of a feeling actually...was that I was driving back to save myself.
I travelled alone by plane the first time. The agency mailed me a shuttle ticket. NY to Boston and I had a friend, Diane, drive me to the airport. My mother wouldn;t take the time off from work, but also forbaded me to tell any of my freinds, so she thought I was taking a taxi.I got there by myself them just as I got there by myself now, though this time I paid for the travel myself too.
I thought alot about my first trip there. Seeing Boston for the first time, being fasinated by Cambridge and Harvard, watching and being thrilled by the rowing on the Charles River. It was the only time in my life I was met at the airport by a driver holding a sign with my name on it. Something was glamourous about travelling to an unknown world to do this sacrafcial act. What can I tell you..I was a Goth chick after all..first generation really.
I felt, in a surreal way, for that girl, who I was, and her travel. How she walked into situation and thought, with adoption, she had found the perfect way out. She was just trying to live, do what she thought she should, make decisions like a grown up, do crazy and dangerous things becasue she could.
Even having a relationship with him, Max's father, was just so insane. Amd she knew it, yet based om what she looked up to, she was doing what she should..what she shoud want to do. For years Cosmopolitan was her guide, and in the glossy pages would be tales of antics with office relationships and tips on how to get his to be interested, the older, mature, better moneyed man. How exciting when it happened to her...unbelievable really!
What makes me the saddest now, is that no one saw though it all. Not one person asked a question of me. It was like the invisable time of my life. I was sinking in a black hole and not one person in my life tryed to pull me out. Heck, I don't think they even noticed I was gone. No one questioned me, no one cared. They blindly accepted my steadfast answers, but no one asked me why...or even what *I* wanted..
And before someone starts on on personal responsibility and how I made a choice, I am not BLAMING anyone, it just makes me sad. And it should. I had freinds, family, co-workers, classmates, more family..my mother,my grandfather, my uncle, laura..oh so many friends...and they all went "Ok Claud..bye..o to Boston and have a baby and give it away"..becasue that is the most normal thing to do and people do that all the time, right?
Wrong, they had no idea wtf to do, coz it had never happened to them before either. They froze like deer in the headlights, too. So no blame, just sadness..I guess more becasue many of hem were the grown ups. I was really, still just a kid. Thinking I was oh so worldly, but totally clueless. I just expected more of them, those grownups.
I needed to be saved, and no one saved me.
So driving back, I felt like I could save myself.
I was now the grown up and I was going back. And it felt like, in some way, she was back there, still 19, waiting. Hoping for someone to save her, get her out of the jam, make it ok, make it better. And I could. I could give her back her baby.
I was going to go and find him. For me, for him, for her, for all of us. And the terrible separation would be no more.
And we all know I did, and how great it was..and it does feel like a great beginning.
********
So now I am home. I went two more days or so with the mostly brown and blondish "normal" hair and bugged out. Rye and the kids have been requesting the return of the red. I had a jar of Manic Panic Vampire Red and just let that all sink on into my bleached out, damaged tresses.
The color is amazing, and with my darker roots, it does not look too flat or cartoony. Plus I fiqured out a new way to style it that even Rye likes. That's pretty ipossible.
Of course, the color is very close to that color I was when I concieved Max. That was Poppy Red, a bit more pink, but still very good.
I find myself feeling very..nostolgic, but in a different way. Like I feel even more open. Like my hair is wild, the new tattoo is on my arm, and can be seen with short sleeves. I cannot hide that I am tattoed any longer. I feel almost more confortable in my own skin, that I can shout out who I am?
And not just about adoption. I can talk about adoption all day really. If I can bring it into a conversation, then I will. In fact, I gather that sometimes, I can be a bore. Like I am open enough about adoption all the time..so like when I had customers leaving tonight, they asked if I did something else..and I tried to explain what I do here ( lol hard)..and they asked why, and I told them that I "lost my first born son to adoption"..Which lead to a whole conversation, or maybe prsentation on my part, about what the issues are in a nutshell. But the thing is, I have been doing that for a long time now. So the openess extends more than just adoption talk.
Maybe I am just happy? But like the other day at work, the "new mix" of MP3's was all grat 80's stuff and just great classic rock and roll. And it made me so thrilled. I bobbed around all night singing to myself.
Now this AM, Rye and I somehow ended up watching VH1. And let me tell you..it was great! All these excellent videos from back in the day, when MTV was still using a rocket ship as the symbol of coolness, just paraded across the screen. SOmehpw I eneded up firecly dancing around with the dog, annoying Rye with my bad singing, as he showered. I fiound it terribly amusing and thought myself hysterically funny and witty.
It's not that I feel younger, though I am acting younger. I feel complete again.
Like there was a part of me that did really get lost with Max. A sense of joy, a hope, a belief that was unsure, a dream..that I forgot about. Some part of me, that I lost touch with, forgot how to feel some things, just quieted inside. Like I have definalty HAD appy times in the past 19 years, but there was always something else, some dark spot, where the sun would never shine, no matter how great life was, I would always know, even without thinking, that it was not quite right.
It feels right again.
Happiness no longer must work around that blackness to reach though me to the other side, now it just shines though..it is like I am made of glass. See me, I am full.
*******
I can't go back though time. I can't really save myself. There was no pregnant girl looking like me, standing around, waiting, on the streets of Newton when we drove though. Not even a ghost.
But on coming home, yeah, something did come back with me.
I can remember what it was like, before the blackness came, and I can dance again, with the dog, be silly, and be more of me.
So maybe I couldn't save me then, or even the girl from then, but maybe I can still save me?
It feels good. I can tell you that. It feels good to dance.
By Claudia Corrigan D'Arcy aka
Claudia Corrigan D'Arcy
on
Thursday, March 22, 2007
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wow. gf. could i ever relate. as always so much in our parallel lives of ours. claud and suz must be living somewhere have a grand old time, eh?
ReplyDeletelove the red. you know thats my color as well (not quite yours but i stay in reds and others...latest is black underneath and red on top...lol).
funny, odd in a way, that like you, many around me knew something was really wrong. the people I babysat for, the director of the maternity home, but they all kept quiet. gave me this kind of sick grimmace that held back what they really wanted to say.
its sadly, too much of an american way, dont get involved, mind your business, look the other way, even in the face of harsh injustice and intolerable cruelty.
you had boston and i had chicago. i remember my trip back to the maternity home last year, all by myself...ugh. chokes me up now.
yes, we can indeed save ourselves.
you for one, have helped me to save me.
much love.
.... I LOVE YOUR WRITING and your ability to reach your readers to tell YOUR story...
ReplyDeleteDebiP
I got chills reading that. Yes, sweetie, it feels good to dance and I am so glad you can dance again.
ReplyDeleteHmmmm something strange is going on in mom world. I just dyed my hair black with red highlights. Now my red is Beyond Zone wild red but pretty close to the manic shades. Maybe it is our way to make sure we aren't invisible anymore. Or maybe we all like red a whole bunch. It would be great to compare pictures of out bright red hair.
ReplyDeleteMeg (who has no google acount)
Ahhhh. Reading this feels good, I can only imagine how good it felt to write it.
ReplyDeleteAnd even better still, how it must feel to just FEEL it. Thanks, Claud!!
Claude,
ReplyDeleteYou write: "So maybe I couldn't save me then, or even the girl from then, but maybe I can still save me? It feels good. I can tell you that. It feels good to dance."
That's exactly how I feel when I say I'm "content & at peace". The future is SO bright. There are so many truly fantastic days as opposed to down days.
How ANYONE can try to ruin that kind of happiness is beyond me. It reflects back on no one but themselves. (speaking of some of your past beloved commenters)
You deserve it, want it. Max deserves it, and wants it. Case closed.
Keep dancing!!!
~diane
Smiling for you over here... big smiles.
ReplyDeleteyou really need to write a book.
ReplyDelete...as you know that same time period of my life contained so much that others (family, friends) turned a blind eye to, i read this and think - WTF -- we really need to not do this to OUR KIDS!
ironically, max is now entering that very time frame in his life. yeah! -- he has you now!
plus, garin not far behind, was being an arse on myspace -- we called him on it, and crap -- he commented back to me about how he was was being an arse, etc. oh, it makes me happy.
i think we just really need to be there for them. REALLY be there for them. and crap --- you ARE!
so so so amazing...
Yeah, well I still take no credit for Garin. We told him that he has got to stop making those horrible cursing bullitans on MySpace..said how embarassing it is...he acts like a arse. And he opted to deleat ALL the adult friends of mine instead of not being a jerk. I bet you are not on his list anymore! He'd rather be an arse.
ReplyDeleteOhhh...yes, lets have a wild hair picturethon!!! The redhead posse???
CAN YOU SEE ME NOW??? And..Suz..that's my next addition..you know..the planned black underneath...yeah want to talk about artifical twinning?
nope. i'm still there, glad he does not think i am an adult.
ReplyDeleteClaud,
ReplyDeleteI so realted to your post, I remember saying in a support meeting after finding my son that I felt kinder and gentler, that the edge in me rounded out.
I decided last may to dye my hair for the first time ever and I dyed it Hot tamale red. Ha
MSP
Beautiful writing,great insights. May the joy and refound life go on and on and on......
ReplyDelete