Sometimes string may be all you need.

One of the annual rituals during our summer vacation is kite-flying on the beach.  We arrive just as dusk is on its way out and nightfall is on its way in.  For years, we guided the kites our boys held in anticipation.  Sometimes we found the perfect mix of wind, string and nylon that resulted in soaring specks of color in the night sky.  Other times, we couldn’t seem to catch the wind, or we pulled too tightly on the string and crashed the kite into the sand, or we somehow lost the string altogether and watched it drift away.  

We still carry on that tradition, mostly for my niece who is younger than her cousins and enjoys our mini-kite festival every year.  (Lately, my boys, their dad and their uncles toss around a football while my sister and I wrestle the kites into the air.)  The thing is, even when we’re successful, and one or more of our kites have reached a high point, we turn to each other and ask: now what?  Hold that thought. 

Last week, we moved our oldest child into college.  Because I can’t seem to relax about managing all the details surrounding situations like this, I spent a lot of time leading up to moving day checking off lists and times and logistics about the process.  I spent almost no time checking on myself and the new place I would move into once our son left home.    

So we packed and then unpacked.  Plugged in and wired up everything, made a bed, hung up clothes and found a new place for the bits and pieces of his life that he carried with him.  We met the young man - the stranger - who would share the dorm room and possibly share a lifelong friendship with him.  We met his parents, too, and tried to answer, in a matter of twenty minutes, these questions: who they were, what they believed, how they raised their son and whether or not they were people of character and principles.  (I told you I couldn’t relax about stuff like this.)  Thankfully, my first impressions told me the following:  friendly, approachable, bright people, who held the same values in terms of education and love of the arts.  They raised a polite young man, who was clearly dedicated to his studies, and they were committed to supporting him to help him succeed.  

As the moving in ended and the moving on began, my son and I hugged goodbye – and spent an extra couple of seconds hanging on while we did.  Then, just eighteen and half years after he arrived, my oldest son walked away in one direction and I in another.  

A few months ago, I received an email from a friend who read a column I wrote about my children growing up.  In it, Joanne artfully expressed the challenge we all face in raising our children.  She reminded me that raising children is kind of like flying a kite:  hold on too tightly, and a kite doesn’t get very far.  Give it too much slack too soon, before the wind has really caught hold so it can move freely without danger, and it comes crashing to the ground.  But when you can find that perfect ratio of give and take while holding the string that connects you and the kite, it soars effortlessly into the sky.  

I tried to calculate the “too much slack vs. too tight” ratio last week during the move into college.  It was tough; it almost felt like I’d dropped the string.  I’d given my son a generous amount of freedom.  He was ready for it; it was the right time to set him on his own.  He took off; maybe with a bit of shakiness at first, but he’s soaring now.

The kite is airborne.  Which brings the inevitable question: now what?  I don’t have that answer yet.  Maybe we’ll just enjoy the flight.  We’ll watch the kite flutter, even dive a bit from time to time, then help keep it moving ever higher, letting that string out even more; more than I would have believed is possible.  But never let it go.