Things that matter are hard.
We watched ‘Instant Family’ last night. The ‘based on a true story’ film is about a mid 30s couple in California played by Mark Wahlberg and Rose Byrne who are responding to the ticking clock of relationships and feeling that they want to adopt a child.
After attending a fostering and adoption open eventing they decide to undertake an 8-week course in fostering, by the end of which they decide they are ready to look for a child.
Long story short – they foster three siblings who are in care because their mother is incarcerated. Alongside the predictable teething troubles, teenage tantrums (the eldest is a feisty 15 year old) and general mishaps they are pushed to the limit by the teenager pushing her limits.
The climax of this scene is that the father’s mum calms everyone down and at the point where the couple are about to call it a day, she says something along the lines of ‘this is normal behaviour. Most parents experience these changes in their family gradually but you’ve had them all at once. THINGS THAT MATTER ARE HARD’.
And it summed up family, teaching, parenthood, leadership and campaigning – whatever you are doing that supports others is, if it REALLY matters, hard.
So remember, what you do day-in and day-out will be hard, please also remember that what you do matters. A lot.
Bernie.