Archives for June 2010

A Father’s Dream is a contradiction. It is a non-descript, descriptor that both attracts and repels readers. It is three simple words that can be interpreted in a number of different ways. Three words that can lead the reader down the primrose path into a tangled tale of personal dreams or general ambition.

So my friends it is your choice to make, do you continue to read to see where the madman shall take you or do you point and click your way into some other thicket of thoughts. Even as we speak the hamsters are working feverishly inside my melon, running hard so that they can feed the machine so that I might produce another 600 words for your review.

Traveling Jack and his band of merry men have been on the road for more than a weekend and less than a fortnight. It has been enough time for he and his children to engage in discussions both serious and silly. They ask him why he is armed with enough electronic gear to open a small store.

More importantly they wish to know why he is always pointing his Flip camera at them. The dark haired beauty says that he is crazy- her older brother says that it is not nice to say that dad is nuts, but whispers “you’re right.”

If someone else had the Flip or some other means of videotaping us they already would have uploaded video footage of the crazy dad dancing to U Can’t Touch This with his beeeyootiful daughter. This where a Father’s Dream comes into play. Crazy dad imagined that he looked more than a little cool dancing. The dark haired beauty encouraged him to continue his herky-jerky movements- her laughter fueled his fire and he kept going until he was out of breath.

Oy, do you know what an almost six year old with dark eyes can do when she says, “dance again daddy.” All I have to say is that I came within moments of going viral on YouTube for all the wrong reasons.

Hmm…I just changed tenses again. Somewhere my English teachers are shaking their heads and wondering why I insist on breaking the rules. All I can say is that I am consistent- broke the rules back then and am still breaking them now.

This used to make Jack’s mama crazy. She would tell me that once I knew the rules I would be allowed to break them, grammatically that is. She would also ask me not to torment my siblings. And I must confess that I did dream about not doing that, but as the only boy among 16k girls it was too easy and I sometimes succumbed to temptation.

Life outside the big city we live in is different. I am happy that the children are exposed to these things. Some of the differences are exciting. They love watching deer wander through the backyard and think that it is really cool to be able to drive into Manhattan at a moment’s notice. The houses and buildings are different and the children they play with talk about California as if it is some exotic place.

But they miss their friends and wish that we could have brought the dog with us. They want to know if one day planes will be fast enough to turn it into a simple commute similar to going from the Valley to the Westside.

That is a Father’s dream- to live to see thousands of miles turned into no big deal. I suppose that if I were a billionaire that day would already be here, but I am not and can’t say that I will be any time soon. But you never know because a Father dreams. He dreams about who he will be and who his kids will grow up to be.

He dreams about things big and small, far and near. He dreams and he dreams some more. And somewhere in between he tries to live the life that will turn those dreams into something more than just a dream.