Several years ago, our precocious 6 year old son informed me we were going to write a book. It was going to be about a tree house I promised to build for him. By the time he finished creating the story and I had finished building the tree house (which actually took place over a Father’s Day Weekend), we had our ‘book’. It was only as that story unfolded that its true lesson was revealed – parenting isn’t about building whatever your kids dream, it’s about building a platform for their dreams and all of their tomorrow dreams, too. (PLEASE CLICK ON THE TITLE ABOVE TO CONTINUE READING.)
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When that little boy graduated high school a few years ago, in a poem I wrote for him to mark the occasion and referring to myself I wrote “more lessons learned that ever taught in that platform in the sky”. And a couple years ago, upon our move to North Carolina, we were sitting on the back patio of the home my wife and I had dreamed about, under the canopy of a magnificent 100 year old beech tree which we defiantly guarded against cutting down during construction no matter how inconvenient it was for the contractors, and our son said to me: “Dad, looks like you finally got your own tree house”! I was reminded of these episodes recently. A few blocks away from that home sits an old abandoned garage on a small lot, which we were able to acquire even before we started building our home. Providing storage during the transition, it was for me always about my ‘tomorrow dreams’, a workshop of sorts. And one of those dreams is being lived out right now. In the home where I was born and raised, we had an old shuffleboard table in the basement. I remember so many wonderful family parties at which that table provided great entertainment, and I wanted to recapture those memories and all that technology-free family fun in our new home. I made a promise to my father (who is now 82) that this was my plan. So, a few months ago I hauled it down from Philadelphia to that garage and am currently in the process of restoring it with my father’s help. In doing so, I am using the skills and knowledge, the attention to detail, and the pride of personal craftsmanship that he taught me over a lifetime of working on various projects together. Through this project, bringing that shuffleboard table ‘home’, restoring it and (soon!) being able to play on it again, I am honoring my father, all those things he taught me, and so many memories. Although Father’s Day is past, the opportunity to reflect, to remember, to cherish is always in front of us. And, as a father, I have to thank our son who, fifteen years ago, taught me that valuable parenting lesson about building platforms for all your tomorrow dreams. |