I suppose lots of fathers want their kids to follow in their footsteps and be interested in the stuff they like. I’m an English teacher and nature lover. Most my boys, however, haven’t shown must interest in literature or nature. I use to teach them the names of plants when we would hike, but stopped after a while. I read books to my kids, but most of them aren’t avid readers. Perhaps they don’t share my interests because they are adopted, but I know biological kids who don’t share their parents’ interests.
But this is not a lament. Instead of withdrawing into my own interests I have let love draw me into theirs. I am a slow middle-aged guy with a bad knee, but I know quite a bit about sprinting because Claude excelled at track. Teckla and I have a one-eyed mealy amazon parrot in our kitchen because Peter got interested in parrots and worked at a bird store. I don’t know much about rap music—Christian or secular, but I have come to appreciate Lecrae and can now recognize a good beat because Dylan has been making beats. My first impression of cage-fighting was that it was a barbaric spectacle, but as Dallas has trained to be an MMA fighter I have learned to recognize a gogoplata and flying back-heel kick.
I’m certainly not an expert in any of these areas, but by embracing the learning curve my life has been enriched. Even so, we learn for the sake of our boys. For Teckla and me it is a loving curve.
