‘Second Sunset’
– from a different perspective. I tell my parents I
I spent the last couple weeks visiting my admire the life they have created for themselves.
parents.
They have this great cabin, fun friends and
I’ve been lucky in the parent department. It’s neighbors, they bike all summer, ski all winter,
fashionable to recall some pivotal incident that and, at the end of every day, they get an extra
occurred when we were 8, and extrapolate how sunset.
every diffi culty experience in our life since is a
I’d like an extra sunset.
result. But I’ve never seen any truth to this in my
By middle age, I thought I could already see the
own life. I was really happy when I was 8 – and I sun going down. I fi gured I knew, more or less,
give my parents full credit.
how the story ended. It turns out I was wrong.
My life is very different from my parents’
Today, I am doing things I never dreamt of
life. Still, they have always been supportive, and doing 15 years ago; things I never imagined I
have always at least pretended to be interested could do. But now, as I scramble up the hill in the
in whatever I was doing as I careened from one end-of-the-day light, I realize how much there is
career to the next. When, in my 50s, I started to do in the late afternoon, how much is left to
to write, my parents were characteristically see. I’d feel a lot sillier if I were the only one
enthusiastic, with only the occasional exception panting up the hill, but I have a lot of company.
(perhaps when I wrote in a column how my All around me I see folks looking for that second
mother used to garden in her red bikini.)
sunset: picking up paintbrushes and pens and
They have always lived a life they enjoy and college degrees, trying on new haircuts and new
are proud of, and have encouraged me to do the beliefs. Sometimes it’s a little embarrassing – but
same. Now, in their 80s, my parents still inspire we don’t really care.
me. Most recently, it was at sunset.
Like my parents, we’re just grateful to get
My parents live in Northern Minnesota in a this extra sunset. We’re so glad the sun hasn’t
cabin high on a hill overlooking the lake, so you gone down after all. We just needed a different
have to climb a lot of steps to get from the cabin perspective. We just needed to get to higher
down to the shore. My father built the steps down ground.
to the lake. In the middle of the climb, there is
Learn more about Carrie at CarrieClasson.
a bench where (my dad insists) there is a good com.
place to admire the view. (It
happens to also be a good place
to rest on the way up – but I’ll
let him stick to his story.)
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Because the cabin sits so far
above the shore, when they
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An In-Home
– a second sunset.
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So, my parents take a seat
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outside their cabin and watch
the whole thing all over again
THE POSTSCRIPT BY CARRIE CLASSON
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Discount applied at time of purchase. Terms and Conditions Apply. * Subject to 3rd party credit approval. Minimum monthly payments required. Receive a free American Standard Cadet Toilet with full
installation of a Liberation Walk-In Bath, Liberation Shower, or Deluxe Shower. Offer valid only while supplies last. Limit one per household. Must be first time purchaser. All offers subject to change prior
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