Helplessly Average...

On the way home tonight, I thought of a letter I should write to my children. Be unique. Be exceptional. Be unbearably quirky, undeniably different, inexorably intimate. Wear clothes that make you more like you and less like others. Wear a derby hat-because no one else does. Wear pink pants with a green shirt because you can. Sing songs seldom sung. Sing harmony. Sing out of key. Learn to whistle while you’re young and practice often. Make everyday more joyful, and contagiously inflict joy upon your world. Save all your change and dine exquisitely for just one...

Tivo Generation: Television 5.0...

It is hardly proper for me, the person who had the pleasure of a remote control and VCR throughout most of my memory, to poke fun at the Tivo generation, but my daughter gave me pause this morning.  While watching the morning cartoons in the kitchen, on one of our too many televisions, I missed an interesting advertisement and noted such to the daughter.  She said “well just rewind it.”  Again tonight while watching a DVD, the daughter instructed us to “rewind” to replay a vanished line. In the Tivo/ondemand/youtube world information is at our...

Disney on Ice – Kudos...

Dear Disney: Tonight we took the daughter to your Disney on Ice spectacular. While the prince was slaying evil on ice, Darth Disney, the dark suited piracy purger, was confiscating video tapes from the dangerous mothers of the gallery. Good job sir. I understand. The problem is that the quality of most home video recorders, which is carefully gripped in a mother’s hand steadied by her elbow firmly seated on her knee, provides such high quality recordings that people have all but quit attending your shows. If one of these videos were to perhaps ever be played again...

Carried away...

On the way to work/preschool this morning, the daughter and I were listening to NPR.  In a half conscious daze reeling through the day’s task list, I tuned out the tuned station.  The daughter said “that would not be fun.” I asked her what she was talking about. She said, “getting killed in a tornado.” “Um, yeah, we should listen to some music,” I told her. Share the...

Soul and Body...

Typical morning conversation: 3 year old daughter:  “Daddy, was I in Heaven before I was born?” Me:  “Well, actually that is a great question.  First we have to distinguish between the physical and the spiritual or ‘animus.’ Philosophers often debate over the creation or pre-existance of spirit.  I, for one, believe that the animus and the physical creation occur simultaneously at conception, and that man does not necessarily pre-exist his body but does post-exist his body.” 3 year old daughter: “Daddy, I like Fruit...