What a father knows is the sort of headline that I love for it offers a million possibilities and you know that I hate being restricted by anyone and anything. I should take this moment and create some sort of poster board with a list of things fathers know that we need to teach our children about.
It would be perfect for Pinterest and with all the traffic that is generating, well it might be the kick that this joint needs. You know what I mean. That is your humble servant saying that maybe it would be the place that the agent who is looking for a new writer would be hanging out in. And he or she would see that poster about What a Father Knows and follow it back here.
Oh My!
Can you see the possibilities? Can you imagine what it could mean. They might sign me up right then and there to write a book about being a dad. Don’t tell me that the market is saturated. Don’t tell me that there are a ton of those books out there because I know this and it doesn’t matter.
It doesn’t matter because people like choices. It is why you can drive a Honda/Toyota/Ford/Mercedes/Lexus/Hyundai/Kia/Dodge/Chevrolet sedan.  Don’t get side tracked by my having placed luxury next to the average Joe manufacturers because you’ll miss the point.
And that point is that there often is a minimal difference in reliability and quality between these cars. Compare a Toyota Camry to a Honda Accord and you’ll find that the reason many people choose one over the other comes down to brand preference. Is there a real difference between Time and Newsweek.
People will read what this dad has to say. Much of the success will come down to proper marketing, but that is a separate topic.
Words Left Unwritten
Or maybe they’ll move from Pinterest to here and onto Words Left Unwritten. Maybe it will happen because they’ll stumble onto An Uncertain Certainty and New Year’s Eve and be compelled to find out more. They’ll read those words and scour WUL and then come back determined to find out more.
And I’ll write about how I got caught up listening to Fleetwood Mac sing Silver Springs over and over. I’ll talk about how it made me think of a million stories and how I remembered a few of my own. I’ll write about how Stevie Nicks sings “Was I just a fool” and “Give me just a chance.” Every one will wonder what the connection is and I won’t say more than I understand this.
But that will be enough. That will be enough for most of you.
What a Father Knows
What a father knows is that sometimes life decides to give you the sort of beating that makes you wonder what the hell you did wrong. But you have choices, oh do you have choices. You can lie down and let yourself be kicked into submission. You can roll over and just give up, or you can laugh.
You can laugh because no bully can continue to administer that sort of beating when they are being laughed at. It frightens them and gives you their power. The question is what do you do with that power afterwards, maybe you turn around and kick that sucker in the balls or maybe you just keep laughing. Maybe you laugh because it is disconcerting and there is power in the mystique you create.
What a father knows is that success is based upon what you see when you look in the mirror. Your own happiness is based entirely in your self perception. Those don’t have to be just words, they can be your own truth.
And that is part of the journey of life, the search for our own personal truth.
Who Am I & What Am I
My children and I are talking and they want to know what my life was like when I was not quite an adult but not a boy either. That is a 7.5 year-olds way of trying to figure out how I could have lived before I became a father. She knows I had a life, but it doesn’t quite work for her yet.
We talk about my old apartment and then they ask what happened in Jerusalem. It is a long story that they don’t know and that is ok, but they know pieces of it. I tell them a few funny stories but another memory flits through my mind that I don’t share. Â I don’t think that anything has registered on my face but girls pay attention to facial expressions in ways that boys don’t.
“Daddy, why did you look sad?” I am surprised that she caught the twinge but I am not going to tell her that sometimes I feel regret for not chasing that particular dream. I smile and tell her that it must have been something I ate.
She laughs and says “dad, your farts are terrible. You better go to the bathroom now.” I laugh, that girl just makes me smile.
What a father knows is that we pay a price for every choice we make. Sometimes it is bargain and sometimes it is a ripoff. Â That doesn’t change the need for us to decide whether we choose to laugh or cry.
But what a father teaches his children is that the people we surround ourselves always make a difference. Â Don’t let go of those who make your spirit soar and don’t hold onto those who crush your heart.
