The difference between a P and a W (Chapter 2, Day 3)

If this is your first time here, go back to the first day.

Dear men,

It was a stupid odd thing to start, and every time I said it, it seemed that the girls would roll their eyes, but I would ask them, “do you know the difference between daughter and laughter? A ‘D’ and an ‘L’.”

Mainly I was thinking about how weird two very different sounding words are so similar in spelling but a daughter and laughter are very near the same. And even though “son” and “fun” sound similar and are spelled differently, I do think those two are also nearly the same thing.

I thought about that as I considered two other words, “Wonder” and “Ponder.” They are different etymologically, but what makes you wonder? What makes you ponder?

Do things in life that are “full” of wonder and your life will be wonder-full!

One of my favorite passages is “and Mary pondered these things in her heart.” As a man, as a husband, as a father, I hope you do things of wonder to make your family ponder and have future memories.

I think that doing new things, seeking out new adventures, keeps a child-like wonder alive in us all, regardless of age. I am not a sports dare-devil but I do love adventures, especially in travel. One of the scariest things I had ever done was when in 2008 I went to Africa. We each brought about $2,000 in cash and then landed in Malawi and before we even dropped off our luggage, we divided up and went on a mission site with a native translator.

Think about it: In one of the poorest areas of the world, 18 blindly trusting Americans are separated and whisked away to a remote part of the country under the auspices of preaching the gospel without knowing the language and totally at mercy of the translators. I still have the video footage of me turning on my camera in pitch black darkness as we drove with our native guide to our first preaching site. Eighteen people multiply times $2,000 equals quite an amount of money in an impoverished country and I wondered whether a trace of us would ever be found if something went awry.

On top of that, our guide was very passionate (I mean, loud!) in his talking and on top of all else, he got lost to where we were going. He pulls over and yells out at one of the men nearby and I am thinking, “This is it…they’ll find my final moments on a video recorder and say ‘that’s what happened to this mission team.’” Fortunately, he was only asking for directions and not giving a signal to one of his compatriots. We arrive at the site and all went as planned.

But it was an adventure.

I hope you guys make your marriage and your young families adventuresome. 

SIL*, one time we drove three hours into Mexico on vacation and parked our car while we went sight-seeing. We walked and walked and then decided we would get a taxi cab back. All six of us got into a Volkswagon Beetle, seven in all. When got to our destination and I unfolded my legs, I could barely walk.

But it was an adventure.

Sometimes I get around some people or family memories and all we talk about is remembering a funny episode on a television show or what was the latest movie we saw. Make more memories than watching television. We took a road trip to Washington DC and had to stay with a distant cousin and found out that they, well, were not as family-friendly as I remembered them being. Then we camped out in a tent because we didn’t have enough money to stay in a hotel. Then spent the night with a former next door neighbor, then an aunt of a fellow church member. On the way back, we stayed with a former missionary partner I knew about three days nearly two decades prior. Did I mention she was female? Although we never dated, we did have some fun correspondence as pen pals. For whatever reason, it was somewhat of a frosty stay despite the summer Mississippi heat.

And that trip too was an adventure.

I look forward to sharing with my SIL some of our family memories and hearing from him some of his adventures from childhood. But even more, I look forward to the new adventures in child-rearing and family raising from you men and your families.

“Live long and prosper?” That’s not up to us. But “Live life to the fullest.” That we can decide to do!

Love you all and praying for your decisions,

Dad / Pops  

*SIL stands for Son-In-Law