To A Little Girl Halfway Across the World

My friend S moved to Istanbul a couple of months ago with her daughter SS, also a great friend of mine. They’ve been jetting off to Turkey, or to England, as long as I have known them, but they always came back after four or five months.

This time S has a job with a television production company that suits her right down to the ground, so it might be a while before I see them again.

My friendship with S has always been based on our both having daughters who were natural knowers. Sarah once  asked me when she was four years old, after watching a Slim Goodbody program about the human body, “Where is the knowing?”

I remember SS once remarked, when she was about five, “Boys are stupid.” I said she was right, they generally are, but every once in a while you find one that seems to be paying attention.

For S and me, parenting has been less a matter of planning than a matter of holding onto one’s hat.

So anyway, I began to miss SS, of whom I am very fond, and I wrote her a letter that I decided to share with the blogosphere:

Dear SS,

Parents always hope that their children will be smart and beautiful

And we are surprised and delighted when they are funny

But above all we pray that they will always be kind

Because without this, the rest means nothing.

Your friend,

Stephen