In a few months, I'm going to become a dad for the first time. This thought is inconceivable to me, yet seems perfectly natural.
Friends and family promise me that I'm in for the biggest and best adventure of my life. In the next breath, they also warn me that I'm in for thousands of the craziest, most maddening days I'll ever hope to see.
I'm cool with that because there's a thought that calms me down and pushes me forward every day. He (for sake of discussion) only wants one thing right now. And I know that I can give it to him.
Sure, he'll need a house and a room and a place to sleep. He'll need Halloween costumes, birthday candles and hidden Easter eggs. When he's 16, he'll need me to get out of the car so he can pick up his Homecoming date alone. When he's 30, he'll probably need me to babysit his kids.
But for now, he really only needs one thing from me - to be at the top of my game. He needs a Dad who's fit enough, healthy enough and happy enough to do what needs done and have fun doing it. He needs a Dad with enough energy reserves to light up Sioux City, Iowa. He needs a Dad who'll be playing on the floor more than lying on the couch. He needs a quick, clear thinker, a heavy lifter, and an all-around fixer of things mechanical and personal.
