Last Friday I tripped up to the San Juan's of Washington State with my wife on a retreat/vacation with some of her workmates. In Anacortes we parked our car in line to wait for the ferry and up ahead of us we saw Sonja's colleague, Jeff, who owned the house we would be staying at for the weekend.
So we stood outside our car as the sun went down and got to know each other. The wind comming off the water was cold for a June day so I grabbed my sweater.
Jeff had a 10 yr old son, Tai, who stood by him with a big smile and curly dark hair. When I was Tai's age I was in that transition from boy to man. From my memories of being age 10 I expected that this boy or his father would probably not behave in certain ways. So I was unprepared for what happened next.
Tai told his father he was cold and with a smile reached under Jeff's fleece jacket. Jeff very naturally then pulled it open to allow Tai to cuddle within the strechy fleece as we continued our conversation. Jeff was like a "kangaroo Dad" then with Tai's head popped out of his jacket. This was so amazing to me. A 10 yr old and his father just were more restrained and "cool" than this in my experience. Openly affectionate is just not something I see much of. And I think that should change.
Before the ferry came, Tai challenged his Dad to a game of "catch me if you can." They then proceeded to chase each other as fast as they could up and down the rows of parked cars
laughing as they went. And they did this for about 10 mins! The love and respect I witnessed between this father and son was healthy and inspiring. This is true success in my mind.Over the rest of the weekend together I experienced the capacity and capability for Jeff and Tai to care for each other. They kidded, wrestled, hugged, touched, and laughed all weekend. Tai turned out to be much more mature, confident, and intelligent than I was at that age. He and his father both taught me a lot.
No comments:
Post a Comment