Castle on a Cloud (Concert Edition)

There are times when I worry about my kids.  My wife and I are both pretty accomplished people, and it's kind of a cliche that your kids are destined to disappoint.  In our case, it's not so much that I buy into the cliche as that I don't want my kids to be pressured by whatever Sally and I have done with our lives.

Because we've done a lot.


Look, I'm not some stage parent.  I don't feel like forcing my kids to do upteen hours of morning practice, or really anything else, so that I can feel better about the stuff that I didn't quite accomplish with my own life.  Sure, Sally and I have frustrations in our lives--who doesn't--but I think we're confident enough in ourselves and in the directions that we've taken with our lives to realize that it is what it is.  You run the best race you can, and when it's over, that's it. At the end of the day, I can live with that. I'm not ever going to be the Secretary of State, but a bunch of people have run their first triathlons because of my inspiration and coaching, and that ain't bad.  And I helped save New York City electric ratepayers a billion dollars a couple of years ago.  That was kind of a big deal.  I mean, there's more, but you get the idea.

Bottom line, I want my kids to be happy.  I don't want them to be pressured to keep up; I don't want them to feel like they're not whatever it is that Sally and I want them to be.  If they let themselves down, then that's one thing, and I understand that as well as anybody.  But I don't want them to think that they're letting us down.  We're good.  We've got our own lives and our own crap.

What they do is up to them.

Which is maybe why it's so satisfying to see Hannah succeeding in something that she cares about all on her own.  I may worry about her or wonder what her future is gonna be, but then she hits the stage--completely alone; the youngest, smallest girl in the entire show--and just blows the roof off the place.

Every.  Damn.  Time.

And then I take a deep breath.  

Truth is, the kids are alright.  I can live with that.