Empty Nest or They All Need to Fly the Sterling Coop Sometime!

On Children
Kahlil Gibran

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let our bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Don had been a poor mentor most of this season. He was supposed to be there for Peggy, and instead he got caught up in other things. I think it’s no coincidence that after he assumes Peggy will just follow along meekly, his daughter takes him to task for the promises he didn’t keep, and then he goes back to Peggy and tells her he values her and that he made the mistake of thinking she was an extension of him. He is Peggy’s mentor much like he’s Sally’s father, but he owns neither of them. He can’t just mouth platitudes and expect them to look at him with trust and adoration.

Peggy is touched by his words, and she should be since he just gave her his version of the speech she gave to Pete last year. One day you’re one person, and then you lose something, and it’s gone for good, and you have to rethink who you are. There are tears in her eyes, but she has to know, “If I say no, if I tell you I’m ready to leave the nest, will I still matter?”

Pete has always looked up to Don, even when he was trying to betray him. Don was who he went to when his father died, and Don is the person who was loyal to when Duck sought to co-opt him. And Don has sent Pete away more than once. Now, he goes to Pete, who with his hair uncombed and wearing a robe, looks twelve. Oh, and by the way, Don, he stayed home from school, and he’s not really sick! Pete doesn’t want to hear what his talents are from Roger but from Don. “You saw this coming Pete. We didn’t. In fact, you’ve been ahead on a lot of things…We need you to keep us moving forward. I do, anyway.”

Both Peggy and Pete need Don to know that they’ve other offers. Both want his validation. Both need to hear the words from him. I’d call them twins, but that would be icky, considering their history. Pete and Peggy are the next generation. Bobby and Sally the generation after that. Don is not the future anymore, and he knows it. He does not seek to bury the next generation in Golden Tombs. For now, the older generations are following the lead of younger generations and taking risks. Maybe this comes from hanging out with school teachers who like to dance barefoot in the grass.

I can’t suss out how Don’s father fits into this, but he does. Maybe it’s that Don always saw himself in Archie’s image, but realizes he doesn’t have to make his mistakes, doesn’t always have to see himself as a whore child who is named after a castration wish. I know you all are going to tell me what I’m missing anyhow.