Our Older Boy Returns from Wild Outdoors: Is a Launch In Sight?
If he read this, he'd have my head. So be it. I'm his father and proud of it.
Alexander is 19 and recently returned from a set of outdoor expeditions that put him squarely in the "student" class. Negotiating tent arrangements, food and gear with twenty some other adventurers, he was gone for almost four months.
National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), a program I'd never heard about, shuttled his group from the desert south of Tucson -- backpacking and rock climbing -- to British Columbia: sea kayaking and sailing. I couldn't have handled it but...he was just fine. Probably the youngest one there but...we won't know because he tells us so little.
No pictures. Few stories. "What do you want to know?" he asks us when he invite him to lecture us of his crusades. Pulling teeth is easier than eliciting information.
What now? we're asking ourselves. Will he be with us forever? He has no plans and is not the college-bound type. Bright, articulate, arrogant, brash even. He understands the hyprocrisy and state of brokenness of most of our systems. What can you do with someone with that wisdom at such an early age? Hopeless and depressed? No. Realistic, yes.
So, our older son is back (he has older siblings from Patty's previous marriage) but he's the lead guy for the next one who is, thankfully, a hand full too. How do we interact with him now? He's an adult. Or, should be. I love being a father.
If he read this, he'd have my head. So be it. I'm his father and proud of it.
Alexander is 19 and recently returned from a set of outdoor expeditions that put him squarely in the "student" class. Negotiating tent arrangements, food and gear with twenty some other adventurers, he was gone for almost four months.
National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), a program I'd never heard about, shuttled his group from the desert south of Tucson -- backpacking and rock climbing -- to British Columbia: sea kayaking and sailing. I couldn't have handled it but...he was just fine. Probably the youngest one there but...we won't know because he tells us so little.
No pictures. Few stories. "What do you want to know?" he asks us when he invite him to lecture us of his crusades. Pulling teeth is easier than eliciting information.
What now? we're asking ourselves. Will he be with us forever? He has no plans and is not the college-bound type. Bright, articulate, arrogant, brash even. He understands the hyprocrisy and state of brokenness of most of our systems. What can you do with someone with that wisdom at such an early age? Hopeless and depressed? No. Realistic, yes.
So, our older son is back (he has older siblings from Patty's previous marriage) but he's the lead guy for the next one who is, thankfully, a hand full too. How do we interact with him now? He's an adult. Or, should be. I love being a father.
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