The Dudester Revisited

First off, thank you for all of the email. It seemed to be equally divided between people that wanted to make sure that I shared my diary with my children when they are older and another group who provided me a myriad of examples of boys like Graham that turned out to be tremendous people. I appreciate both sentiments.

First, there are 3 reasons I write in this diary everyday. One of them, is for my children. There are literally hundreds of reasons why I want them to read this but none is more important than the fact that I want them to know that they are loved. They are - tremendously. I guess I also can't write off another important goal which is to let them know what superb twerps they really are. Okay, all joking aside, I make no claims of being a perfect parent or making all of the right decisions. I think that is life. I think that a major thing that they can learn from this exercise is that we aren't perfect but that we keep trying. We keep our eye on the ball. We keep pushing to do our best everyday. We clearly do that in parenting and I hope they can see that in my diary. When they grow up and have their own children and we get the privilege of telling them that they got exactly what they deserved they will be able to go back and see that, yes, they got exactly what they deserved.

The other point that was made in the email I received was that kids like Graham (abused by girlishness) still turn out to be great people. Of this I have no doubt. My concern is not that Graham will turn out to be anything less than I know him to be. In fact, I am quite confident of one thing. Graham will grow up to be a superb human being. There is no doubt in my mind. It is the one thing in life that I am sure of. I don't know any other way to say it than he has a tremendous soul. I admire him for that. Yes, my son - the 5 year old. My concern from Graham has nothing to do with what or who he will grow up to be. My concern is of the challenges that he will face getting there. Our first instinct as parents is to protect our children. I don't want to see him made fun of or taunted. And, if he is going to be, I want to arm him the tools to handle it. Those are my concerns and wishes - not that he will be any less than I know he will be. Mark my words. Graham is going to change the world. I don't know how or when but just wait and see.

Well, enough bragging about my little Dudely. If I keep this up I will never hear the end of it from the Divas. I just want him to know what I truly think. I can't wait to see what he becomes.

The boy has purpose.