The moms in my life
One woman kept me safe until I was old enough to keep myself safe. Another woman keeps me sane so I can be a good father. This is what moms do. They give all...
Category: Parenting
Earplugs
The first stop of the morning was for earplugs. We went to Home Depot together and walked among gods on a Saturday morning. They were immortal more-than-men who would destroy things and build new...
The man at the grocery store
My wife is paranoid. She’ll admit it as readily as I say it, but she’ll call it “observant” or “careful.” She’s suspicious of people I’d pick up as hitchhikers or trust to give me...
Listen
I worry about my oldest boy, but only because I see myself in him. He’s driven, but fights frustration. He’s joyful, but an easy mark for emotion. He also falls a lot. Genes are...
Four fathers
It’s a two-hour flight from Atlanta to Springfield, Missouri, one that leaves un-argued that Atlanta is a Cher-Madonna-Bono-city, while Springfield requires a state designation to determine whether it is Brad Pitt or a Brad...
Iceman cometh
My dad taught me many things: how to play in the key of G, how to shave, how to eat four pounds of crab legs without throwing up in public. I can’t assign a...
The life cycle of a vomiter
Stage 1: The body’s will–Notable during the first several years of a child’s life, Stage 1 is exhibited by body and mind exhibiting no will as it relates to vomiting. What wants to come...
Luckiest man
I take compliments badly. Always have. A good friend told me many years ago (and he probably doesn’t even remember it) that when somebody offers me a compliment, I should learn to not over-think...
Grown-ups can have hamsters
“A boxer!” the boy exclaimed. We were in the car. Tom T. Hall was singing about old dogs and my kid was pointing out the window at the brown boxer on the suburban lawn....
My microlending boy
Last week around this time, I was in the back of a Volkswagon and sliding out of a misty Rosario, Argentina. The city’s huge monuments and cloud-soaked buildings escaped through the back window as...
Sunrise
I’ve seen a lot of sunrises in the past three months. Some have been shame’s flashlight, burnt orange, Vegas disasters that made me curse myself and everything around. A few have been black, through-the-curtains...
Milestone
Along the way to becoming a man, along the way to that first kiss, first car, first beer, first love (none of these in any particular order, I’m sure), and all the rest of...
Six
Happy birthday to the boy who taught me a new kind of joy; that life is not only about more than me, but almost entirely about more than me; that there was yet another...
Boogie Ball
The seaweed was thick that day. A park ranger told me it was called sargassum. I giggled, because that’s what children like me do when they discover words that sound like a combination of...