YONDER BREAKS

The other day my Dad sent me a picture of my future step-brother-in-law's college graduation. We went to the same school , but I missed my ceremony because I was driving back from my last semester at the Los Angeles Film Studies Center . I didn't really get too involved in my college, having gone to another one my freshman year and also being a commuter, so I didn't feel terribly connected to the school. However, seeing the picture made me ask myself, Did I regret anything about my college experience? Would I have done something differently? I think regret can be a dangerous thing. I remember having a friend in high school tell me he never regretted a single decision he made. How he could go through life not wanting to do  anything  differently? Even at this young age, I felt I would have liked to have done some things over again. It has taken several years, but I am only recently understanding the wisdom in his statement. Still, I reflected for a moment, and couldn...

I hate to admit it, but I am on a string of domestic mistakes right now, particularly in the area of shopping for our family. In the past few weeks I have bought: children's vitamins for the wrong age, the wrong cooking oil , green olives instead of black, the wrong size diapers, and quite a few other items that weren't the right ones from the list. The good part about it is that it does feel good to return items and watch that money go back into the bank account (even if it will only exit a short moment later with the correct purchase -- ride those highs to get through the lows). I am a big proponent of the idea that dads can do more than they think they can, but there are some things we just aren't as good at. I don't mean that "we" as a dad-only thing, but more of a personality difference. When I go grocery shopping, I am in and out as fast as I can, mostly because I don't like the crowds, but also because the kids can get a little rowdy in there. My...

My aunt bought me one of these pads years ago. I'm not sure I was aware of it then, but I guess she was...I'm pretty bad at making decisions. I remember one time sitting in my living room when I was in high school and staring at the wall.  My sister  walked in and asked what I was doing. "Trying to figure out if I should play video games or go skateboarding," I replied. (Oh, the hardships of youth...) My sister said that was dumb and walked away. She came back about 25 minutes later and I was still sitting there, undecided. "You're ridiculous!" she said, and she was right. I had spent so much time deciding what to do, that I could have probably done both things with the time I wasted. Where does this come from? Over the years I've come to realize that this  indecisiveness is rooted in  fear . I'm afraid to make the wrong decision, and so I spend way more time than necessary to make the right one. The folly in that should be more obvious, b...