When I was Seventeen

When I was seventeen, my father would tell me, "Get with the program." I didn't understand it then, I am not sure that I understand it now. But he would say it after he had asked me to do something, and I had not done it to his satisfaction. I guess that I wasn't doing it right. Fathers are never really satisfied with their sons, and sons never relish listening to their fathers.

My son is now seventeen, and when I ask him to do something, his response is that he works for someone else. This someone else is his aunt, his mother, anyone else, not me.

I am not upset at this response. Instead, I take solace in the fact that all children repeat the mistakes of their fathers. So, said Marcus Aurelius in his Meditations.