Would You Like to Hear a Song? (Originals, Vol 3): “Finally on Our Own”

At the time of this recording it is late August and the new school year is beginning for children.
I am now reaching the age where friends of mine have children who are heading off to college to start their adventures in higher education. These friends have shared pictures of the family settling the students into their dorm rooms at various universities and it always fills me with a palpable amount of melancholy.
I imagine the day that I too must come to terms with my children leaving the preverbal nest and venturing off into the world…absent their parents continuous influence.
The idea of children growing up and leaving home has always populated the minds of parents everywhere.
However, another aspect in the cyclical nature of parenting is what exactly happens to the parents when the children are gone and the demands of the mother and father are considerably lightened?
I once read an interview with songwriting great, John Hiatt, as he was experiencing this very phenomenon.
His kids had grown and moved out of the house leaving him and his wife Nancy empty nesters.
He mentions how strange it was to be alone with just his wife and that they had to reintroduce themselves to each other.
That always resonated with me.
This idea that you and your spouse begin as two people in love, passionate about spending every waking moment together and sharing every drop of an afternoon.
Then, with the introduction of children, that dynamic changes drastically...and so do your priorities.
Your lives are madness as these tiny aliens become tiny people and finally…big people.
Big enough to do everything they need to do to successfully participate in society…big enough to even do those things without you.
The children leave…and once again, if you're lucky, the one you started out with is sitting across from you. Now what?

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