Archives for June 2010

Ten minutes ago there were 600 words sitting in this box. Six hundred words that I decided were not worthy of publishing. They didn’t merit exposure to the the light of day so with a simple point-and-click I eliminated them, disposed of them and started over.

They displeased me these words. They were awkward and disjointed, ugly and unforgiving. There is a time and place for such things. Sometimes I like to use such constructs because they help to illustrate a picture and moment. They tell tales such things but some tales deserve better than and thus you find yourself traveling down a different path than you would have.

And in the not so different future Traveling Jack and his band will do the same. We’ll hit the road and head out for parts known and unknown. Soon we will be stuck among the masses and listening to the captain speak about cruising altitudes, flight instructions and other such things.

The dark haired beauty has already given me instructions for how I am to behave and what she expects of me. If she is nervous she expects me to help her. I asked her if there ever was a time in which I did not and she said no. I smiled and told her that this will be no different.

Her older brother has his own list of questions and requests. He is ready for adventure and wants to make sure that I am as well. I promise him that I am and that whatever comes I shall be ready for it. When I explain to him my plan for dealing with wild animals on the plane he laughs and tells me that was ridiculous.

It has been years since he has flown anywhere so he really doesn’t understand how silly the idea of a rhino or tiger charging down the aisle is. Simply no room for it. But he did ask me what I’d do if there were bad guys on the plane. I was saddened to hear him say that- I haven’t spoken with him about 9/11 or hijackers in general. I don’t know if he really knows anything about that and am relatively confident that if he did I would have heard about it.

But I made my usual promise- bad guys are taken out. Since he is a bigger kid he stopped and asked me if I would kill them. My smile faded and I told him that I haven’t any tolerance for people threatening my family. He asked me if that meant that I would kill them. Part of me loved that he followed up on his question, he is growing.

I nodded my head and said that I would do what was required to keep them all safe and that if it meant killing someone I would. It wasn’t an exaggeration on my part- father’s protect their families. But I also said that I would never do it unless there was no other way.

Because he really doesn’t care about what I do as long as he and his sister are protected. That is ok with me. He is excited about flying, but a little nervous.

I didn’t tell him that as long as I can remember I have looked for spies at the airport. It used to be a big game for me, a way to pass the time. Since 9/11 it is something that I take a little bit more seriously. I check out the other passengers. Periodically I’ll look around the plane and see if anything looks hinky to me. I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about it.

Most of my time is devoted to reading/writing/sleeping. But I would be lying if I said that the thought never crosses my mind because it does. Fortunately the odds are that I will never come close to seeing anything like that.

The worst that I have seen on a flight are the drunk passengers that become belligerent and even that is really infrequent. Most of the time the biggest issue is having to deal with being cramped and stuck in a small place for an extended period of time.

In a moment I should begin packing. I haven’t done more than take my suitcase in from the garage. I know more or less what I plan on taking so it shouldn’t take very long- but it is just one of those things that I don’t like doing. Packing is something that just irritates me.

Sometimes I want to be a billionaire so that I don’t have to pack. I’ll have my own jet, flight crew and plenty of jack to spend on whatever I need wherever I go. Although that is kind of wasteful, so it is probably not what I want to do either.

As a compromise I’ll worry about that when I become a billionaire. Sadly, this will probably take me more than five years to accomplish. But who knows, sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. It could happen sooner.

Ok, got to run now. Be good and I’ll try to check back in later.

That has to be one of the saddest things that I have ever written, but it is true. I don’t want my children to be President of the United States of America, or like cool kids say…POTUS.

That should be blasphemy. We should live in a country in which a father wants his children to be president, not because of the power/fame it provides but because of what that power provides. The opportunity to give back and to make the world a better place than it was when they entered office.

I think of this as being common sense. Altruism is something I want from government officials. I don’t want empty campaign slogans that talk about change or fighting for us- but I don’t see that. And what I do see makes me sad, angry and worried.

I don’t want my children to be president because I don’t want them to be subjected to the unrealistic expectations that we shower upon our candidates. I don’t want their lives dissected so that the most ridiculous minutiae is unveiled and discussed. I don’t want them to be embarrassed because some schmuck tells a story about how I was a jerk one time when I was 20, 25 or 50.

And the sad thing is that it might not be something that I did that was wrong. It could be a fragment of a post about politics that their opposition doesn’t like. So they’ll take words that I wrote decades before the kids were running for an office and try to prove that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

I know that this sounds ridiculous. Unless we change the Constitution it is 25 years before my oldest will be eligible to run for office. Why should I worry about something that is so far away especially when we don’t know if he’ll have any interest in politics.

Well the reason is simple- the system is broken now. We don’t plant trees today so that we can harvest the fruit next week. We plant them for those who are coming just as those who came before planted for us. That is why I am looking at this now.

I am looking at the world around me and asking questions about what I can do to make it a better place. I am looking at it and wondering where is the soft spot, where is the low hanging fruit. What can we do to make an immediate impact.

But I have to admit that part of the reason I am doing it is for selfish reasons. I figured that if we can improve the world it makes my life better and there is no reason not to do that. But mostly it is because I love my children and want them to have more than myself.