I Am Many Things

Griffin, Jenna, Lola The Dog, Maya, Miles

I was lying in bed last night at three in the morning, wide awake, asking myself why am I wide awake at three in the morning. I thought of a few things.

In no particular order here we go..

I'm a Father.

Jackson Browne sang, "They say in the end it's a wink of an eye."

Amen to that.

It seems like just yesterday I was a kid listening to my parents and now I'm the parent.

What I didn't know then that I know now is you tend to make things up as you go along. Oh, you have an outline you follow but it's forever changing, forever evolving.

You try to teach your children the difference between right and wrong, manners, kindness, honesty, and hopefully how to think for themselves. You support them, be a friend as well as a parent.

And help prepare them for that cold world on the other side of your window.

My kids constantly surprise me.

They turn from these lumps of clay into living, breathing, diamonds.  They'll say things that make you think, "Where'd they get that?"

It's fun to hang out with them.

Watching Star Wars with one of my boys was a mind blowing experience. I couldn't believe we were watching it together. R2D2. C3PO. Darth Vader.

His idea.

I think I had more fun than he did.

One last thing, one of my sons came home from school, sixth grade, and told me he learned about "King Beebee," that day.

"King Beebee?"

"King Beebee."

Turns out it was B.B. King.

I'm a Husband.

I've been single and I've been married. I prefer being married.

Being married is a marathon not a sprint. And let's get this out there, there are days my wife would like to pitch me out the window and days I'd like to do the same to her.

Spoken from a guy who knows.

Having said that, what begins as an attraction turns into this rich, fulfilling, raising a family, we're a team, it's forever, kind of love.

Watching a girl turn into a great mother is divine. Can a woman love being pregnant? My wife will tell you she does. She always says she'd have another kid in a heartbeat.

As we got further and further into the pregnancy, and she got bigger and bigger with our twins, she slept all the time.

But when she was awake? Always smiling.

I tell my wife she's a paper tiger because she always firmly tells the kids no and at the first sign of tears it's yes.

So guess what they do?

But guess who loves their mom to pieces.

I'm a Son.

The things you remember...

We were in Berlin, it was raining, I was about 9 or 10, and couldn't go outside to play. My mother spent that day patiently teaching us how to shuffle cards. Why do I remember that?

I dunno but I do.

Many years later, my mom and I went to an Earth, Wind and Fire concert. Together with my sister, Karen.

Hippest mother there.

I always wanted to be like my dad. I played sports. He sang opera.

He also was an officer in the Air Force at a time when there were precious few black officers.

One time, in high school, he came to see me wrestle. I had separated my shoulder so when I took off my warm up suit I had tape all over the place.

Well, long story short, I pinned the guy. My dad ran down to the mat after the match and gave me 5 bucks.

McDonald's here we come.



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