Daddy K finds a letter

I found an old letter that I wrote to another father almost 10 years ago. It goes a little something like this:

I remember as a child helping my birth father put together model airplanes, the kind with little alcohol burning engines that really flew. The frames were built with balsa wood, and then covered painstakingly with tissue paper skins, glue and paint.

Of course, I did what I could, watching him more than helping, but I was fascinated by the detail and design that went into those planes. It's one of the only fond memories I have of my birth father, and the plane building was something we did as father and son.

I remember how they were hung in my room, and at night as star shine dreams beamed through my window, I would lay on my bed and imagine flying those planes, becoming Snoopy versus the Red Baron, blasting the enemy out of the skies and saving the world, and getting the girl. Well, maybe not getting the girl, at least not until I was thirteen, but by then the planes were gone...

The man I call my father now, and always will until the day I pass from this world, was cheated from these experiences not having a son of his own from birth. I was a teenager when we met, and we never built planes together, or played ball, or wrestled nightly farting matches, or looked at the stars together, or shared the dreams and fears a child son shares with his Father.

Guide your son and teach him personal pride. Love him for all he is. Journey with him and join in the rites of his passage. Foster his dreams and protect him from his fears. God and the universe will embrace you.

Don't neglect or force the man within him. Revel in his youth and the true path of a real man's destiny. Always follow your soul and heartmeld, and your son will grow strong in honesty, integrity, sincerity and star shine.

I'm glad I found it. Good advice for myself now. Funny how that works.