Family Pride

I haven't told you much about my family, mostly because it's boring to people who aren't part of my family.

But I'm going to take a long weekend (Friday thru Sunday) to visit out-of-state family, which means that while I may write on Thursday the chances are I'll be packing for my trip.

Most of my stuff is pretty boring, but if you choose to stop by here from time to time, this is a warning that there will probably be no new material for the next few days.

I don't need to tell you why. But I want to. If you don't want to hear about it, this is a good time to move on to something more interesting.



You may know that my son, the B-Geek, is in the Navy now. He has completed his A-school training (Master At Arms ... he wants to be a cop, which fills me both with pride and concern) and will soon be transferred to his permanent duty station for a 3-year tour. That station is too far away for a weekend visit, but this weekend only he will be within a one-day trip from my home while he visits his mother.

I'll be taking Friday off work and driving to where he and his wife (and the majority of his five children) are, so I can see them. I like my son, I like his wife, and I like their children.

Most important, I have brand-new twin grandsons as of six weeks ago, and this may be my best chance to see them for the first time ever.


There was a time in 1968, in a fire-fight in Viet Nam, where I found myself curled into the tiniest possible ball while I waited for a hand-grenade to go off, and my thought was a regret that I had never had children. I was 23 years old at the time, and frankly had never expected to come home, but until that moment I didn't realize how important it was that there be Little Geeks in the world.

(Then, I thought of them as "Little Sergeants", but that has changed over the years as my priorities changed.)

The grenade never went off, and I've since been blessed with two Little Geeks and they, in turn, have provided a total of seven Littler Geeks. No, I will resist the temptation to apply the title "Least Geeks". I am surprised to discover that children become even more precious in the Next Generation. I don't understand how that could be possible, but there it is.

The most recent two are twin boys. I've only seen their pictures. That I have never met them is A Darkness In The Force.

There is a school of thought which suggests that our progeny is a Narcissistic extension of our own ego. That may be true, I don't know. But to me, grandchildren are an affirmation of life.

They may grow up to be total rounders and worthless dregs on society, although I very much doubt it; their parents are too family oriented to allow such a travesty. Both my son and his wife, the Aly-geek, love children and all of their children know it.

It is important that children grow up with a sense of family. I grew up that way, and I know that the best thing I can do with my life is to pass that sense on to the twins and their siblings.

So I'll be spending some quality time with The Kids ... Jake and the Twins ... and this is hopefully only the first of many opportunities to acquaint my grandchildren with a sense of continuity.

It's difficult to do, given that career choices have taken my children, and their children, so far away from me.

But my children are determined that their children know their family, and that they learn Family Pride.

I couldn't be more proud of all of my children.