My Dear Son Jack

This is my favorite picture of my son, Jack. At a little over a year and a half, he's easily the coolest person I know.

I've learned (and remembered) many things about life thanks to Jack. He's the best kind of teacher, patiently guiding me by example instead of sitting me down and lecturing me for hours on end. When I grow up, I hope to be half as zen as he is now. As we get older, we seem to lose our ability to exist in the moment. Everybody's head swims with responsibility and worry and life becomes full of distractions.

I started keeping track of these little life lessons and realizations in the form of a book of letters that I'm writing for Jack, which I plan on giving him on his twenty first birthday. Writing a novel isn't really that daunting when you break the work up over a twenty one year period of time. It's not exactly what a person could call an overwhelming workload, even a monkey could do it.

Of course, any random monkey is probably a better writer than I am but my heart is in the right place.

My hope is that when my son grows to become a man, he'll be able to know me not as just his father but also as the person I am. There is more to all of us than just any single role that we fill. I'm also a brother, son, husband, friend, artist, writer, dreamer, asshole...the list goes on and on. I'd like him to see every facet of me eventually.

And if he does a good job at teaching, he might even like me when he gets to really know me.