Thursday
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11/11/05
A Blast. From The Past.
Or, A Brief Addendum To The 11/2 Entry
I find all too often that it's very easy indeed to lose sight of the numerous benefits of not only creating children, but then raising them properly. Sure, they are expensive to feed and they are forever bedeviling the staff by leaving fingerprints on the silver, but they do eventually become rather useful in practical ways. It won't be long, for instance, before our older lad will be cutting the grass as I watch from the shady comfort of the front porch, sipping a freshly squeezed lemonade. And who will be painting the deck next summer as I oversee the operation whilst settled 'neath the magnolias in my favorite rattan chair, mint julep in hand and gleaming white Panama hat protecting my alabaster skin? You guessed it, the fruit of my loins, that's who.
There are, of course, more prosaic benefits to raising a brace of lads, not the least of which is that they provide an excellent excuse to personally revisit your own childhood habits without appearing entirely oafish. To wit, I present my case:
So, what does any of this have to do with anything? Well, it was not too long ago that the boys and I were watching the Science Channel with the sort of glassy-eyed ennui that is unique to rainy afternoons when a program about model rockets suddenly came on. Really cool rockets. It wasn't long before I felt the rusty gears of childhood memory turning in the back of my head. I used to build and launch rockets when I was a kid. Really cool rockets. Hmmm, I mused, I'd really like to... I mean, I bet the boys would really love to build and launch rockets... and sure enough it was only a matter of weeks before each of us had built and flown a few different rockets. Really cool rockets.
So sure, in the end it really is great for them because they do love rockets as a hobby, but I know that I'm really the lucky one, if only because without the boys there is not a chance in the world that I would be standing out in the field behind the elementary school doing this. It really does make up for all the fingerprints on the silver.
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|
11/11/05
A Blast. From The Past.
Or, A Brief Addendum To The 11/2 Entry
I find all too often that it's very easy indeed to lose sight of the numerous benefits of not only creating children, but then raising them properly. Sure, they are expensive to feed and they are forever bedeviling the staff by leaving fingerprints on the silver, but they do eventually become rather useful in practical ways. It won't be long, for instance, before our older lad will be cutting the grass as I watch from the shady comfort of the front porch, sipping a freshly squeezed lemonade. And who will be painting the deck next summer as I oversee the operation whilst settled 'neath the magnolias in my favorite rattan chair, mint julep in hand and gleaming white Panama hat protecting my alabaster skin? You guessed it, the fruit of my loins, that's who.
There are, of course, more prosaic benefits to raising a brace of lads, not the least of which is that they provide an excellent excuse to personally revisit your own childhood habits without appearing entirely oafish. To wit, I present my case:
1: It is a Saturday night and you are a forty-year-old single guy sitting on the couch with a beer and you are playing Halo2. You are a loser.See? It couldn't be simpler. Narcissistic leisure activity + two cute kids = validation of said behavior. Voila!
2: It is a Saturday night and you are a forty-year-old father sitting on the couch with a beer and you are playing Halo2 with your kids. You are an upstanding, engaged parent who is bonding with his bright eyed, well-adjusted kids.
Or,
1: It is a Sunday afternoon and you are a forty-year-old single guy out shooting hoops in the driveway by yourself. Now you are not only a loser, but apparently a loser with no friends.
2: It is a Sunday afternoon and you are a forty-year-old father out shooting hoops in the driveway with your kids. You are still an upstanding, engaged parent who is bonding with his bright eyed, well-adjusted kids. Only now it involves healthy, physical activity. Hooray!
So, what does any of this have to do with anything? Well, it was not too long ago that the boys and I were watching the Science Channel with the sort of glassy-eyed ennui that is unique to rainy afternoons when a program about model rockets suddenly came on. Really cool rockets. It wasn't long before I felt the rusty gears of childhood memory turning in the back of my head. I used to build and launch rockets when I was a kid. Really cool rockets. Hmmm, I mused, I'd really like to... I mean, I bet the boys would really love to build and launch rockets... and sure enough it was only a matter of weeks before each of us had built and flown a few different rockets. Really cool rockets.
So sure, in the end it really is great for them because they do love rockets as a hobby, but I know that I'm really the lucky one, if only because without the boys there is not a chance in the world that I would be standing out in the field behind the elementary school doing this. It really does make up for all the fingerprints on the silver.
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