Dad Post #219

I hope M 'n' m read this someday and remember their own craziness more than mine. People are strange (Jim Morrison). I can't hide who I am most days, and I hope they can't either. Because I love them. I don't want their lights under a bushel; I don't want their flags unflown.

Regarding candidness and oversharing, I wonder what a blog from my ancestors would look like, from a great-great-grandfather, for example.... "Oh goodness me, we have big news! Mabel did it again, and this time it's a girl! It was a tidy birth, as Mabel was having a cigarette on the porch, and I was touching up the floorboards with lead paint, when suddenly another baby popped out! Oh joy! We can't decide between Elsie or Ethel. She'll look so fetching in the bonnet Mabel sewed for her." Yeah, that's dumb, although during Elsie or Ethel's teenager years.... "He is of a handsome and genteel sort, I concede, but I fear he must still join us hunting next and be accidentally shot." That part is the same in any era.

Iowa State cracked the top 10 in basketball!

I will miss getting pulled in every direction by my kids. "Hey Dad, look at that!" ... "Dad?! Dad? DAD?! ... Dad, you gotta see this!" ... "Daddy, I need you!" ... Everywhere, little hands pulled on me, and high voices beckoned. I was near the center of a universe. I will never forget how M 'n' m, as toddlers, would move closer to me, often leaning on my leg or hugging it, when suddenly suspicious of a thing nearby. Sometimes I lifted them up, and other times I was only a motionless but palpable reassurance, a comforting force, a massive love. I hope. There is nothing humans would rather be, for people they love. Because life is indeed full of 'threats.' Some only look the part, some are coldly real, and many are of our own mind and making.