Next year this blog will be largely the same but also somewhat different.
To be sure, the “letters” I wrote about our kids will run for another six months, right up until Father’s Day, the blog’s first anniversary. No worries there.
Those upcoming entries will bring you pretty much up to date. You’ll find Michael at his first office job, getting to know the night life and mastering the art of the pushup. You’ll see Caroline come into her own as a gal about town and blossom as an aspiring singer of opera. Late in the spring, I’ll also share – at some length and in considerable detail – exactly what it is that I love so much about each of our children.
Come Father’s Day, though, these vignettes will take a new direction. Though still addressed to my kids, they will look mostly at my own life, and mostly before I became a father. I’ll recount memories of my parents, my grandparents and how I met Elvira, my wife, and much more. It will have some heavy stuff, everything from a near-divorce to heavy drinking and a suicide attempt.
In the process, this blog will get a little more “bloggy” — more guest posts, maybe even a survey, plus links and photos embedded here and there. If I’m going to do a blog at all, I figure, I might as well try to do it right.
Finally, next week will bring a new feature that any of you who are seriously interested in writing letters to your own kids – or grandkids – might consider something of a treat. Starting Jan. 1, I’ll post a weeklong, six-art series of mini-tutorials. Letters To My Kids 101 will illustrate how others might follow my example, including my top 10 tips.
Now, before the clock strikes midnight, let me now urge you one last time to “Take The Pledge” on this homepage to write letters to your kids. Make 2011 the year you invest in your past. After all, you’ll leave your children a keepsake even more precious than your wedding ring, an heirloom as valuable in its own right as your house, a tangible, heartfelt legacy for the next generation vastly superior to any insurance policy.
And as you summon memories to share, you’ll be in for a surprise. You’ll discover new truths about yourself. You’ll understand more about your life. Most rewarding, you’ll find out once and for all just how deeply you love your kids.
And soon they’ll find out, too.
P.S. – I invite all of you to contribute a guest blog, “Why I Took The Pledge” – a short essay about what you plan to tell your kids in 2011, along with your bio and a family photo. To volunteer, just e-mail me at bobbrody@hotmail.com.
letterstomykidsdotorg.wordpress.com 