The Pact
People often say they hate hospitals.
— Articles covering the family
People often say they hate hospitals.
The 72nd All American Soapbox Derby welcomed over 500 families from 43 states and 3 foreign countries to Akron, Ohio. Race week hosted numerous events from July 20-26, 2009, including museum displays, a historic derby car display, a dance, a variety of dinners and clinics, and not to mention, the racing!
My wife, Tess, strives for professionalism and excellence in her work. She takes pride in her family and shares her mother's love of animals. She is also very mischievous. Our family dog is a Dalmatian-Lab mix--the result of a stray who conducted his own mischief with a local breeder’s purebred Dalmatian. We named her Dakota and got her for $15.
The sun descends on the distant mountains like an artillery shell. Two young soldiers are giving each other haircuts on the sandscape of Fort Bliss, Texas. One sits in a three-and-a-half legged chair and trusts his buddy with the clippers. It buzzes up and down his scalp, carving out a symmetrical, Army-standard high and tight.
"To put the world right in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must first cultivate our personal life; we must first set our hearts right." -Confucius
America is losing the war against obesity. Healthy food is expensive; junk food is cheap. In a highly technological environment, sedentary lifestyles have become the norm. Busy-ness is at an all time high. An information-drenched society uses its mind so much that it is disconnected from the body that houses it. When fathers are trying to pay bills, get the kids to and from school, daycare, practices, and clubs, maintain their relationship with their partner, and advance in a highly competitive world, working out often finds itself bumped to the bottom of the priority list. With all of these challenges and responsibilities, why does physical fitness wind up festering in a foil burger wrapper on the floor of our backseats?
When you are embedded in a group of soldiers, you learn a lot about the American identity. This is particularly true if the soldiers are going to war.
My daughter yanked open the drawer and reached for my tools. Beaming toddler pride, she wrapped her tiny fingers around the hammer handle and struggled to lift it. This was the latest drawer that she found her growing body able to open. Each drawer was a new mystery possessing an assortment of interesting objects that she had only seen her mother and father use and wanted to try out herself. When I attempted to distract her from the drawer of dangerous tools, she launched a ferocious fit. As she screamed in protest, it occurred to me how intensely important and pleasurable that discovery is to children.
They are some of the most vivid memories of my childhood. We carried piles of chopped wood into the house, stacking it next to the fireplace. My father mashed newspaper and leaned kindling on it, shifting the logs into the flames until the entire room glowed and warmed. Stockings dangled on the mantle. Snow tumbled from the clouds in droves. The pines grew santa beards and moaned under the weight of the ice.
The instant I saw my daughter’s face for the first time, I almost fell over. Slammed directly in the chest with the proverbial two by four, I stood there enamored, trying to breathe. I stammered out her name in a near whisper. I was a completely stunned, happy idiot. My eyes watered. My knees went weak, and everything went blurry beyond her face. Prior to this she was merely the strange culprit behind my wife’s nausea and expanding abdomen. She was the reason I’d been waking multiple times in the middle of the night to whacks in the head from whirling elbows and flying pillows. My wife would grunt and sigh and mutter things like “Is it a hundred degrees in here?” as she tried to get comfortable. Once she nestled into an agreeable position, I would put my hand on her abdomen and feel my unborn daughter jab, roll, and rock. I had only been able to attempt to divine her face from the mystifying ultrasound photos. Now, after what seemed like a long strange dream, she had arrived. Seeing her actual face for the first time had me wobbling.