Someday.

29 November 2001

So, I'm going to be a daddy. I'm still getting used to being married. For my entire life I've been thinking things like, "Someday I'll get married. Someday I'll have kids." Before you know it, today is Someday. And you find that you're as ready as you'll ever be. Life is funny like that.

It's been said that life is something that happens to us while we're busy doing other things. It takes a certain mindset to stop and notice life as it's happening. We're so busy always thinking we have to get this thing done, finish that thing there, it's like we're striving to please an invisible master but we don't know who or what it is. "Someday I'll slow down and relax a little."

Everyone knows what their values should be, but somehow things go awry. How do I tell someone that I choose not to focus on the goal, and not appear to lack ambition? How do we value ambitions that have no concrete measurement? How often do we only pay lip service to the ideals we think should be valued? I am going to want to spend lots of time with my child. Is my career going to suffer? Is my company "family-friendly"? I don't know. Sure, the experts say that family-friendly is good, but how many companies really try? In spite of progress and forward-thinking industry trends, I don't see the media profiling CEOs and managing directors who publicly place their family first. Has Someday passed them by? Or are they still waiting for Someday?

I'm going to be the best daddy I know how to be. Right now I hardly know anything. Someday I'll know more. But I'd better be paying attention today, because Someday I want my child to appreciate that I am doing the best I can, and I don't want to miss a single moment along the way.