I have had a lot of time to think and to talk to family and friends lately. In this process of writing a narrative for Bryce's life, lots of isolated thoughts have come up. This is one of those thoughts.
This isn't going to be an overly insightful concept for most of you but apparently I have been living with a gaping blind spot for quite some time now. Here goes:
I don't control anything in my life that truly matters.
Saying it out loud makes it seem so obvious it's embarrassing. I'm healthy. I was born into a good family. I'm a biologist because it was the thing I was naturally good at when I was in the career-choosing part of my life. I met Dianna by random chance. One of my sons is healthy and beautiful. My other son was only beautiful.
I think that most Dads believe that they can protect their kids. Our culture lauds Dads for this imaginary strength and cunning, for being six chess moves ahead of everyone else when it comes to averting danger. What complete bullshit. You can strap your kid into a car seat. You can put a helmet on your kid when your kid is doing something that requires a helmet. You can teach them to not run into the street to chase a ball. You can tell them to not talk to strangers or get into their car. These things aren't protection, they are common sense.
You can't protect your kids from random chance.
-Gus
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