I watched the Netflix movie “The Adam Project” with my youngest son last night. It is a cheesy scifi time travel movie. I am not a film critic, but I am guessing it will not win any awards. For what it is though it is a good movie. Fatherhood is a big theme of the movie. Spoiler Alert, there is a scene at the end where the father who died when his son was young gets to spend a few minutes with him as an adult. They play catch, he hugs his son, and tells him that he loves him multiple times because he did not say it enough in the time they had. It was very moving. Before bed I told my son I loved him. Which I often do. I am not stingy with the L word. But I must have put a little more emotion in it because he turned to me with a side eye and said you’re still thinking about that movie aren’t you Dad. Well yes, maybe I was.

I had a great fathers day. My family surprised me with an early Fathers day on the Friday before because my wife had to leave for a trip on that Sunday. My kids wanted to keep all the plans for the day a surprise, which they succeeded in doing. The first thing we did was use our travel credits to rent a jeep for the day for free. The weather was beautiful so we took the top off. After fresh pastries for breakfast we loaded up the jeep and went to the beach. The water was cold, but otherwise it was a perfect beach day. Just after lunchtime we headed to a local brewery to eat outside and watch the US world cup soccer team win against Australia. After that we headed to Old Orchard Beach to play 36 holes of mini golf. On the way home we planned to end the day with ice cream for dinner, but we saw the sign for the Drive In. There were two good movies just about to start. On the spur of the moment we decided to go. I have a snapshot in my mind of the end of that day with my youngest son sitting on the hardtop roof of the Jeep watching a movie as a family. It was a near perfect day.

I am grateful for the Dad I had. He sacrificed a lot to put our family first. I am grateful that I get to be a Dad to two great sons. And I am glad I get to do it next to a wife who deserves much better than me.

Ben Sasse on his “Not Dead Yet” podcast said he never understood why someone would choose chemo, with all its side effects, just to extend their life a few months. He concluded that he now knows because he has a 14 year old son.

On the podcast they also said “one day our kids may stop rolling their eyes at us and say, I wonder if my dad had any advice on this or that thing.” For Ben his terminal diagnosis gave him the urgency to try to record those things with his podcast. I don’t have a terminal diagnosis, or any diagnosis, but I want to see what is most important with that same clarity. I want to say, or write down all the things that I would wish I had said if I found out my time was up. I have a 15 year old son and a 9 year old son. I want to value all the time I have with them.