Growing Old

It's a deux objet d'Ebay Sunday.

First, we have the sluTshirt to consider. A bit of cloth and letters making some sort of metacommunication from a child to parent and viewer about (the wearer's) aging.

Ironic for a piece of clothing, it will presumably never actually be worn in front of dad — unless there is like an eighth dimension of irony I (and hopefully Things 1 and 2) am unlikely ever to comprehend. As with most things, seeing it adorn someone else's son (at his "coming out" party, perhaps) or daughter (as the drunken videographers chortle in the background of a "Girls Gone Wild" video) makes it a very different story about growing up than it ever would be if seen on a child of one's own.

Which brings us to the inevitability of growing up and today's second objet d'Ebay . Even the television baby stuck forever in reruns of "Full House" that is Mary Kate and Ashley Olson has aged. They're somewhere after high school and before death. Not surprisingly, they are tabloid fodder; to the good they are not just "fabulous," but also fabulously wealthy.

A boring aside, I always felt bad for one of them — but was never sure which — as either MK didn't get to have the last name or A had to use the last name as her middle name: as in, the Olson twins are Mary Kate Olson and Ashley Olson Olson.

But the point is that as all children do they have grown up and made their own lives (albeit heavily influenced by choices made for them when they were younger). A point for their biographers, should they ever be taken seriously, much of their work as kids did involve the absence of a mother.

** When I'm in "the home," will my great grand children only stay in the room with me if they can watch re-re-reruns of Full House instead of me rotting? **