I can't shelter you forever, so here is a guide to life

[The Straight Story]

My daughter's best friend is staying the night again, and my daughter starts school for the first time on Monday (we homeschooled last year but can't for 1st grade). Watching them laugh and play, and thinking about my own life got me to thinking.

Right now you are not worried or caring about all the things going on in the world. You don't have the context to refer to. Enjoy that time my dear.

As the years slide by, your world will get bigger. You will begin to see what others do can affect you, and what you do can affect them. Not just in the play yard, but thousands of miles away. People you may never meet can screw your life up, or make it better.

Just like you rely on your parents to care for you and to make the right decisions to make your life ok - we do as well - but it reaches far beyond just parents.

Just like there are mean kids who do bad things, there are adults who are mean and can do things from a distance that can hurt you.

Don't make your heroes tv stars and sports stars, make your heroes the ones who fought for us all and worked to make the planet and country a better place. And know that no hero is perfect, but celebrate instead what they did for others, and not what they did otherwise.

Know that as you grow up, life is not just about you - but about us all and this home we share called earth. Some will be famous, some rich, some scientists, and some the fellow at the local drive through.

There will be sick people, homeless people, physically and mentally challenged people. All of them human, all of them a part of the bigger family you have not met.

When your beliefs in life are shaken, remember that you are not alone. While you might see many of the ugly things in life, take a break and go see the good in people. Teachers, hippies, firemen, those working in homeless shelters, etc and the list goes on.

Know that even people on your side won't always agree with you on the 'how' but do agree on the 'what'. And that is ok, listen to them at least, you might learn something.

Don't let people make your light grow dimmer - you may not shine as bright as some, but even a small light in a dark room is welcomed and needed by those in the room.

And know that always I love you.

[NMDemDist2]

1. a wonderful guide and the perfect place to post this article about my friend

Brain tumor just another chapter in activist's life

SILVER SPRINGS - Tom Blomquist noticed he was having "cognitive issues" for a while. Friends told the Lyon County animal activist he was acting funny and, he said, he kept getting into car accidents.

"Parking lot of the Fifi Market. Bigger than this acre. One car. I hit it," he said, laughing loudly. "The (Lyon County deputy) came and she said 'Tom I know you,' and I said 'Yes sir, you do, but I don't go to Storey County.' Then they wanted to bring in their medical team. I called her sir."

Two weeks ago, after a visit to the Fallon hospital, Blomquist got a diagnosis he never expected.

He had a 6.8-centimeter brain tumor.

http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20070815/NEWS/108150083/-1/NEWS

[The Straight Story]

7. Damn - I wish him luck

Kick me a pm on him, got to be a rough time :(

[ulysses]

2. excellent stuff.

I enjoyed your other thread about your little girl too.

I posted this (the first time) in March, 2003:

To my child:

It will be years before you read this. The fact is that you're not born yet, maybe not even conceived. I don't know when we will get the call from your birthmother asking about what kind of people we are so, waiting, I imagine what kind of person you will be.

And I wonder what kind of world it is into which you will be born and raised. As I write this, our country wobbles on the edge of an unjust war, our economy is a wreck and the freedoms that I and all the adults who will know and love you were raised to expect are being eroded. By the time you read this, the very water you drink could be sold to you by a company far away that cares only about profit. I try to be hopeful about the future, but right now I'm fearful.

I understand now how some folks can want to not bring a child into a world plagued by war, but I can't share their feelings. To be honest, your mother and I need you. There is something basic in people that hopes for a better future, and you are, or will be, the embodiment of that for us. The knowledge that there are hundreds of thousands of children in Iraq this morning who represent that same hope for their parents, yet who are sick for lack of medicine or in grave danger of being killed when this invasion starts, keeps me awake at night.

By the time you read this letter, all this will be either ancient history or part of your current reality. You will have your own set of issues as you become conscious of the world around you, and with luck, we will have raised you to be a questioning, thinking person, capable of getting past the fog of dubious news and opinion with which we are bombarded every day. No matter what I say as I get older and crankier, hold on to your dreams and what you know to be right and never, ever let anyone tell you to shut up and sit down.

Love,

Dad

[Berry Cool]

3. ...and off this goes to the Greatest page n/t

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. My dear Straight Story...

Oh, your prose just takes my breath away!

Your daughter is a very fortunate young lady, with a dad like you...

She will grow up to be a strong, loving and happy young woman...

Confident in herself and her abilities...

Thank you for posting this...

K&R

:hug:

[The Straight Story]

6. Thank you my friend

Been in and out tonight on DU, watching a flick with the wife. Thanks to all who have replied.

Now back the movie before the wife heads to bed (kids are still awake...trying to get two little giggling girls to sleep is never easy).

[villager]

5. basically echoes what the Rabbi said at shabbat tonight, as we geared up for my first born's...

...bar mitzvah, tomorrow!

He was a toddler in preschool just yesterday!

And yes, as he grows, his tribe gets bigger -- since it is, after all, the tribe that was always there: all of ours.

Thanks, Straight Story....