11. Parents

21117802926_a73c6d4a1b_kIf I use the word “parent”, here and in subsequent sections, to refer to my relationship with Max, is that OK?  For this is how I see myself, acknowledging at the same time all the cross-species small print that comes with this assertion.

I feel myself to be his parent also because I recognise that as soon as I give myself this status, I also place myself in the role of a creature who can frustrate as well as be frustrated by this much smaller, more helpless other-creature that I have chosen to take care of. Perhaps because of this care-taking contract. Perhaps also because of the ways in which I frustrated and was frustrated by my own parents. Continue reading “11. Parents”