The Budget of Paradox

Sophia,

There’s a culinary instructor at your school named Chef Phillips. Next year, he’s taking some students on a trip to Costa Rica. It’s a small Latin American country very near Panama. As an EC Glass parent, I get the school’s newsletters.

I would love to pay your fees and have you go on the trip. There is such a big world out there beyond Lynchburg. I want you to see it.

I’d love to meet you in Costa Rica, even if only for a couple of days. I visit Panama all the time; it’s easy for me to get to Costa Rica.

I told your mom. She said no. And then, bizarrely, she said I’m responsible for alienating you. I really have no idea how to reply to that. In addition to all the other things I’ve done to try to be in your life, she made that statement literally right after I invited you to meet me in Costa Rica.

I really have no idea what goes through Kirsten’s brain sometimes. She hires lawyers to fight me — and lie — when I want to see you. But somehow, she’s concluded that I’m responsible for our alienation.

I’m really at a loss for words.

I can’t iterate it enough: I love you and miss you. I hope Costa Rica works out. Or something. Paris. Dubai. CDMX. Something.

Dad