The initial impact of the blow almost knocked me off of my feet but my size saved me from introducing my face to the floor. I am grateful for that because it would have hurt.
He has been wrestling with me for his entire life and has never found a way to beat me. I don’t think he worried about whether launching all 85 pounds of him would hurt me or that he might get hurt in the process either.
That is because he calls me dad and for a brief moment in time I am superman. I don’t know how long that period of time lasts but I suspect that we are starting to enter the latter stages of it.
The Jedi Master
He loves Star Wars and that makes me happy. It is something that we share. It is easy to remember what it was like to be an 8 year-old boy at the drive-in. I found it captivating. Â Can’t say that I ever thought that one day my children and I would share that joy, at least not back then.
But I know for certain that when my wife was pregnant with him I thought about it. I talked to her belly and told the baby that I had no idea whether I would have a son/daughter but that one day I would be their Jedi Master.
It was cute and funny to me and something that I looked forward to.
And now a thousand years later I have learned that he wants to be the Jedi master and not the padawan. Call him a rookie or suggest that I might be the more powerful Jedi and he’ll roll his eyes at you.
That is because his generation got stuck watching the movies in the wrong order. His generation has had The Clone Wars to watch as they have grown where mine hasn’t. That won’t mean much to some of you, but it means something to me.
I am not talking George Lucas raping our childhood by messing with the movies either. What I am talking about is how I don’t know all of the Clone Wars characters the way that he does. I have other things to remember like when to pay our bills.
It is ok with me. I don’t need him to call me anything other than dad and I am happy. Truth is that his behavior proves that even though he likes wearing the crown he still attributes the power to be residing in me.
But I admit that it is surreal to watch this boy grow. The little one who weighed 8 pounds at birth is a bit more than 10 times as heavy now. He is tall enough to reach most of the things he wants to get to and if he can’t he just grabs a stool.
Fifth grade is more than half way over and middle school is just around the corner. It makes me wonder when the growth spurts are going to hit and will they be like mine. His voice is still that of a child, but maybe he’ll be like me as I was at 15.
Maybe it will drop a few octaves and people will mistake his voice for mine.
Changes and Transitions
I don’t know where he is going to go to school next year yet and it troubles me. There are legitimate reasons behind this. It is not because anyone is screwing around or slacking off in any way.
Truth is I still don’t know where we are going to be living yet. I am working on it. The current place is fine for a while longer but I am ready to make more changes so that we can put down more roots.
If I were the Jedi master I would have that done already. Just ask Yoda, there is no try, do or do not is the mantra we follow.
Part of this is troubling and part of this kind of fun. There is some excitement in not knowing all the details. There is time to figure it out yet, but not quite as much as I would like.
And none of this settles the debate on where to send his sister for school or if somehow I’ll figure out a way to keep them at the same school for a bit longer.
I kind of feel a bit like I am Luke on Dagobah. He isn’t quite done with his training but he knows that he has to go help his friends. Life doesn’t always work within our time constraints now does it.
Lukas hasn’t watched anything other than a few lego star wars videos on youtube and he already knows nearly as much as me. Of course I am getting forgetful in my old age.
Really enjoyed this one. Good luck on finding the right place to put down those deeper roots.
Hi James,
Little Jack has a few years on Lukas so he and his friends have been living this for a long time now. It is a lot of fun, but there are moments where I just can’t believe how much new stuff there is, let alone all that we have forgotten. 😉
Thanks for the kind wishes. Hope you are having a great weekend.
I was a Star Wars expert in my day. The Clone Wars has messed with everything. I still enjoy it, though.
I still win the light sabre battles. Size and strength means leverage. But it’s only a matter of time before I lose…
When my son was little I got him into gymnastics so that he would learn balance. He stuck with it for about four years or so.
Can’t say that he is a gymnast, but that little man is lighter on his feet and has better balance than I do. I am not clumsy, but I can see a day coming when he’ll figure out how to use my size against me.
This getting older stuff sucks sometimes. 😉
My kid is in fourth grade and it’s getting harder and harder to throw him off me when we wrestle. I’m afraid to weigh him. Now I don’t feel like such a wimp.
I’m probably late to the party, but I like the new look. Whatever you call the blue at the sides, it’s a fantastic color.
Hi Wolf,
Good to see you. These boys of ours are starting to get much bigger so it really does take a bit more muscle with them. I love it.
But I am cautious because I don’t want to inadvertently hurt my son- I am sure you are the same.
Thank you for the kind words about the new look. Can’t tell you what the color is called, I just kept tweaking and adjusting and this is what I came up with. Hope you are having a good week.
Jack they grow too fast. I can understand your uneasyness with not knowing things like where your son will go to school next year. I struggled with this same thing when we hit the road in 2010 in search of a different life. At first it tormented me but now i ‘ve learned that i was worried over nothing. Our children are really little rubberbands that can stretch and bend.
Why are you moving?
Hi Annie,
Our old house was simply too small and the schools weren’t really what we wanted. It was only supposed to be a starter house and then the market exploded and the work situation changed.
Sold the house last August. Didn’t make sense to add on, especially since it would mean having to keep the kids in private school.
I am sure that the kids will adjust, but I am nervous about it. In part because I am not entirely sure where we will end up. Some of that is work related, looks like that might make us move out of the city and or state. We shall see.
Although I don’t expect it to be as big a move as you made.
My dad had inhuman strength. The kind that is tempered by chopping wood, working on cars, and good genetics so the day I finally beat him at arm wrestling was the day I knew the torch had been passed. Of course it took me 7,000 tries and until I was in college but that’s besides the point 😉
I hear you. The men in my family all tend to be exceptionally strong and my father was no exception. Dammit if my dad wasn’t just ridiculously strong too.
Took hours of working out in the gym and age to finally get me to the point where I knew I could win. Ultimately we never did hash it out, but that is because he didn’t want to lose and I didn’t want to beat him.
I sort of like thinking that he is still stronger- silly but true.
Aren’t you curious to watch The Clone Wars? I just got a Clone Wars wall calendar (long story) and I only know two of the characters. In a way, I don’t care because I know how it ends so why should I care (the same reason I didn’t watch Caprica), but I have to say I’m a little curious to see if it’s at least better than the 3 prequels.
I watch The Clone Wars with him and enjoy it. It is a good show, but I don’t have time to watch every episode so I am not an expert.
And that is ok because he really likes telling me about it so it works out.