Children

My 31 year old son now lives six hours away in Iowa City and next summer will be moving to San Francisco. Of course, I remember lots of things about him as a young boy, but two keep coming back to me often.

First thing, we went to his first Twins game at the Metrodome when he was about seven or eight years old. We were in center field right behind Kirby Pucket (who was a true Minnesota hero back then). My son looked around the Dome and watched the warm-ups with Kirby fielding long drives into center. Adam watched for a while and then said, "Dad, those players should have to pay just to play here."

Second thing, we went fishing pretty often when he was a boy. Again, he was about seven or eight. I was grumbling that we were not catching many fish. He said, "Dad, going fishing is not about catching fish."

I'm sure that if you are a parent, you also have memories of your child saying something that was meaningful to you then and now--many years later. It was something that never would have happened if you weren't with him or her and the circumstances where not perfect.

You know what I'm getting at: you have to be with your kids for these moments and comments to happen. You have to work at being together. As a friend of mine used to say to her husband: "Let's go somewhere with Bill tomorrow and make a memory."

I was lucky enough to have another chance this past weekend. But this time, it was with my step-son. He had wanted to go ice fishing for a couple of years, and finally we decided on a weekend and went to Mille Lacs. We rented a fish house for two nights and came back about noon on Sunday.

Of course, the fish weren't biting (we caught a few perch). We played hours of Monopoly, cards and checkers. We ran up to the casino one night and had the seafood buffet. When we got back to our fish house, we stopped and looked up at the sky.

It was clear and moonless. You could touch the stars. The handle of the Big Dipper hung straight down and a ways to the right the belt of Orion was a mass of diamonds. We turned to each other and, almost at the same time said: "This made the trip worthwhile."

"Dad, going fishing is not about catching fish."

Have a good week with your children.