Dear Spike:
Your mom fell sick tonight. We can’t decide whether it’s because of you or the Mexican food we had for dinner.
Thankfully, she’s asleep — the best medicine, you’ll find.
I, on the other hand, am still having trouble getting to sleep at a reasonable hour, which makes getting up early in the morning a trifle difficult. I figure that once you’re here I’ll take any sleep I can whenever I can, but for now it’s late to bed and early to rise.
That’s a turn on an old adage from Benjamin Franklin — the correct phrase, of course, is “early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise” and is one of many pieces of Franklinian advice still worth adhering to.
Fact is, if you’re ever in the market for a historical hero, Franklin would be a good place to start. Inventor, writer, publisher, scientist and politician, he had no equal in his day and — were he to live in our time — would have no equal now.
And yet, for all his magnificence, Franklin was unable to hold together the one thing that should have been most important: His family.
During the American Revolution, Franklin’s son, William, chose to remain loyal to the English crown. So devastating to their relationship was the split that, in his will, Ben Franklin left almost nothing to his boy.
Perhaps this says something about the depth of the passion Franklin had for our future republic, but I simply cannot fathom an act that could make a father disavow his child. Does that make me unpatriotic? So be it.
Among Franklin’s core principles was order — “let all your things have their places,” he said. I wonder where, when choosing the order of his priorities, Franklin placed his family. Behind this nation? Behind his work as an author, scientist and inventor?
Spike, you will never be behind anything else in my life. Certainly, as you grow up, I will have many other obligations. But I will have no greater priority than being a good father to you.
Franklin may have been the greatest American to ever live, but I have a more important goal: I want to be the greatest father I can be.
Love,
dad
3 comments:
How far along is she now? I found out I was pregnant right away, only four weeks along. For two blissful weeks I thought that I had escaped the dreaded morning sickness. And then I rang in the first day of week six by emptying my stomach of its contents.
For me, the tricks for avoiding puking all the time were:
1. Never let your stomach get empty. You metabolize at a much faster rate during pregnancy, and it doesn't take long for your blood sugar to bottom out. When it does, you get sick. I still have crackers and granola bars in my purse.
2. Saltines and 7 UP. They really do help. At the peak of morning sickness I was also always able to stomach cold cereal and ice cream (at least it has calcium, right?).
3. Have her eat something just before bed, or else in the middle of the night (if she hasn't already, she'll be up to pee half a dozen times in the course of one evening). During my last "pee run" at around 4 in the morning, eating a little something would usually prevent the first-thing ickiness.
As for you, don't be offended if you prepare foods for her, even foods she specifically asked you to prepare because she thought she could stomach them, only to see her puke them up momentarily. She can't help it.
Don't you just love unsolicited advice? Get used to it, because now that you're pregnant you'll be getting if from everywhere.
I thought it was HEALTHY, wealthy and wise, no?
And, to be fair to Franklin (and to you, a little), it was a different time, and being a patriot was probably more important then than being a good father. He was making a future for our entire nation, while you will be focusing on your family. I think it's easier to do that now.
DeAnn:
Smarty pants. I can't believe I misquoted Ben. I feel so dirty. Thankfully, I own this site, so I've fiixed it.
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