Sunrise, Sunset
By: Ayelet <lushkov@netvision.net.il>
August, 1999

Whoops! Nearly forgot I had to post this today. ;) I've been busy having
fun..it's my birthday, you know. (Well, you didn't, but now you do.)
However, a quick look at the clock says that I have 30 minutes more to
go, so I'm okay. ;) 

Enjoy.
Ayelet
-----------------
Sunrise, Sunset. 

(Phee, started this ages ago, and finally got a chance to finish it.
Turned out much shorter than I thought, but, hey, never argue with your
muse when he's finally agreed to honor you with his presence. The song
"Sunrise, Sunset" is from the musical "Fiddler on the Roof" ) 

There are three important events in a man's life. His birth, his sealing,
and as all thing perish, his death. I have stood by my wife's side at
Apollo's birth. I start each day with a pray to the Lords that I'll never
have to stand and watch his death. And now, today, I stand to reside over
my son's sealing. 

Is this the little girl I carried, 
Is this the little boy at play?
I don't remember growing older, 
When did they?  
 
     He's grown, my Apollo, from a too-small baby to a young man who
makes his father's old heart swell with pride. All of them did, all the
little boys and girls I had seen growing. Athena, Zac, Starbuck and
Sheba. 
     Ah, Sheba. Pretty, little, hot-headed Sheba. Admittedly, she is
not so little anymore- how they've grown- but she is a beauty, and alas,
sometimes short of temper. 
     And soon, very soon, my daughter-in-law. That is, of course, if
my all-too-nervous son, whom I can hear letting out his nerves on a very
amused Starbuck, will actually makes it through the day until the
wedding. 
     Amusing to think, that it's Starbuck who will stand there as the
one with some marital experience. Sealed not all that long ago, he and
Cassiopeia have found their way to domestic bliss. That it wouldn't be
the average domestic bliss we had all guessed; what came as quite the
surprise was that they settled into it so...painlessly. 
     And now, it's Apollo's turn. 
     
When did she get to be a beauty,
When did he grow to be this tall?
Wasn't it yesterday,
When they were small? 

     It seems as if only moments ago, I walked out of the medical
center in Caprica, my wife at my side, and my first born son in my arms,
squinting up at me, his gaze promising worlds untold if only I would stay
to see it happening. 
     Which I didn't, and woe to this very day. 
     Duty is a harsh mistress, and I watched that son, and then my
daughter and son again, grow up mostly by way of pictures, stories, and
shaking lips and moist eyes as they bid me farewell every time I went
from them to my second wife, the Galactica. 
     I missed Zac's graduation, Athena's first day of school, and all
too many of Apollo's birthdays.

What words of wisdom can I give them?
How can I help to ease their way?
Now they must learn from one another, 
Day by Day. 

     The life of a single pilot is hard enough, in this artificial
worlds we have built. The life of a family is much harder. And a family
made of two pilots, none of which willing to abandon that status will be,
if I know my children, a laborious task to uphold. 
     What can I give of the experience accumulated in my lifetime,
other than stand aside and let them struggle? Let them test their
strengths, and hope they do so together, instead of against each other.
Both of them has a rather loose grip on their temper, and even when most
in love, they tend to sed the sparks flying. 
     But she comes to stand beside him, their finger intertwine, and
eyes full of love and adoration meet. She is Cain's daughter; Apollo is
my own son. Raised to fight, neither was ever taught to turn their backs
on a fight worth fighting. 
     And what fight is more worthy of fighting than this? 

They look so natural together, 
Just like two newlyweds should be. 
Is there a canopy in store 
For me?  

     Three children have my wife and I brought into this world. Ila
had never lived to see any of them marry. One of them never will. But
behind my eldest son and his bride stands my only daughter, beaming at
her brother. The last one to leave the nest. 
     She had been burnt before, and the embers still glow, as she
looks at Starbuck, who is standing at Apollo's side, eyes for his wife
alone. But Athena is strong, and she will prevail. 
     
Sunrise, Sunset, Sunrise, Sunset, 
Swiftly fly the years,
One season following another
Laden with happiness and fear. 

     I stand above, watching all my children, and my heart fills with
pride. How they have grown, how they've changed. And how the same they
all remained. Time flies by me, and my youth is left far behind. Yet the
journey is long, and the end is not yet near. And all those young men and
women whom the Lords have blessed me with will survive me. 
     But that is yet in the mists of the future, even as memories of
days past sink in to the mists of yesterdays. And until my own time
arrives, and I shall become but a memory, those young men and women are
my strength. 
     The sun has set on our old life, on the 12 Colony Worlds of
mankind. And we hurry through space, hoping to see the sun rise over our
new home. And in the meantime...
     In the meantime, those are my stars.  

--finished August 99. 

-- 
Ayelet; lushkov@netvision.net.il
Odi et amo. quare id faciam fortasse requiris?
  nescio sed fieri sentio et excrucior.
       --Catullus