In my best Bruce Springsteen impersonation, “I hid in the clouded wrath of the crowd, but when they said, "Sit down, " I stood up / Ooh...growin' up”.
As some of my friends start to have children, it has started to sink in that I am now a parent of older children. While it may be unsolicited, I still find myself offering advice about 1 cent less in value than what Lucy Van Pelt was providing from her “Psychiatric Help” booth in the Peanuts comic strip. “Years are short, but the days are long” is what I say. One friend responded by booing me and threatening to punch me in the face, while the other has convinced me that I just said some “sage shit”.
Meanwhile, I am just a dad, doing the best I can. I am maturing by spending more time with my family, diversifying my interests, and improving my second language skills. The only thing that I have not done recently is go see live music (55 days to be exact). But I think that sacrifice is worth it since it means I get to continue to guide my boys through their trials and tribulations.
The other night I was sitting in the parking lot of my son’s school waiting to pick him up from his first Middle School Dance. Serendipitously, Kenny Loggins’ “Footloose” starts to play on the radio and I initially think of Ren McCormack’s small Midwestern town struggle. Thankfully my boys do not face the same sort of uphill battle as Ren and my conversation with my son post-dance is asking him what the superlatives were for the evening.
Or there was a different night listening to the Pharcyde’s “Ya Mama” jokes with my boys and all of us laughing out loud. I realize how offensive the lyrics are “Your mom is so fat (How fat is she?) / Your mama is so big and fat that she can get busy / With twenty-two burritos, but times are rough / I seen her in the back of Taco Bell with handcuffs”, and you have to believe me that with each tear we wiped away from our faces, I was reminding them that these jokes are not appropriate.
Next thing I am going to realize is that my sons are reading this blog from their mobile phones while taking a driver-less Uber from Squirrel Hill to downtown as they make their way to a Andy Grammer show at the Benedum.
Thanks for reading & happy holidays.
