Father’s Day Reflections

“Father’s Day reflections on the key tools I aim to share with my children:

desire to always continue to learn 2) realize there is probably always a choice to be made 3) surf 4) know basic math 5) laugh a lot”

Father’s Day, of course, is a special one for me. I’ve been a Dad for nearly 11 years now, kind of most of my adult life.

For the record, I think a little bit of Father’s Day could trickle into every day, as could Mother’s Day, Daughter’s Day, Son’s Day… Pet Turtle Day, Orchid Day… Chia Pet Day… whatever!

Anyway, yesterday, we were mostly at the river, swimming, kayaking, paddle boarding, and generally just enjoying being a family. It was pretty great all around; I hope it was for you too.

Gryphon and I started the day with a little play session at KORU. He did 10 rounds of 4 rope pulls each arm, 3 shuffle sprints, 2 45# KB lifts, and 1 hanging leg raise. I just did 200 bodyweight squats so I could easily keep an eye on him.

We raced, sort of, and we tied… sort of. One of us was pacing himself, though… ;)

He’s been more open to this as of late, and it’s wonderful to engage with him in these playful ways. One thing I especially loved about how my father raised us is that he never forced us to do the things he probably wanted us to. We grew up seeing Dad do everything from regularly standing on his head in the basement to doing Qi Gong in the sun room. He showed us, but he never forced us. For the most part, this was a great approach.

Needless to say, I’m doing a bit of the same. I do hope, though, that eventually Gryphon gets into a real iceath. ;)

What does all of this have to do with the “advice” from before? Well, I find myself saying this a lot to Gryphon: “If I could inspire you to rely upon one tool consistently, it would be to want to continue to grow.”

Honestly, that’s probably the number one tool I hope he learns to utilize.

Have you ever met anyone who doesn’t need to still grow? To learn? I’ve looked all over, and I gotta say, I don’t think that person is out there. I have never met anyone who is fully cooked, who has it all figured out, and who doesn’t have more to learn.

Don’t we have a few negative terms for people who think they don’t have more to learn?

Regardless, I have truly only met people who are here to learn. The ones who do it well, in short, seem to do it deliberately, by choice. They also know the learning process will come with a mixture of surprises, and some probability.

In other words, they are kickass surfers who have a pretty good sense of patterns. Truly, if you had to pick one skill to impart upon my children, that would be it: become a surfer, in all contexts.

Of course, though, to paraphrase Baz Luhrman, “Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.”

oops… “if I had to pick one skill…”