I’m opening this weekend’s blog entry with a simple riddle. Here it is: Today (Sunday) will be my 30th Father’s day as a dad. However, our oldest child, Andrew, is just 28 years old. That should be enough information. You do the math and figure it out.
(I’ll either post the answer at the end of the blog, or maybe I’ll make you email me for it…? Hmmm, what to do? OK, here you go. Post your solution to this riddle as a “comment”, then we’ll see who gets it first.)
Being a dad has been (and continues to be) the most amazing journey. I believe it’s accurate to say the simple fact of children has accentuated/exacerbated pretty much every other experience in my life and – essentially – multiplied the rest of the story to the power of amazing.
- It’s like adding jalapeno peppers to an otherwise fairly tame recipe…
- or spiking the egg-nog…
- or putting rocket fuel in your lawnmower…
- or switching out the mini-van engine with a race-car motor…
- or exchanging a ten-minute family slide show for a full-length family featured movie directed by Spielberg…
- or having The Stones sit in with the church choir…
- or planning to remodel the back porch, but the guy from Extreme Home Makeover shows up – with a bulldozer and 100 construction workers….
Yeah, that’s it. I think I’ve nailed it! Life before children was like, “I think we’ll paint the walls and maybe re-do some of the screening…” Then the first Father’s Day comes along and – after that – it’s all, “Get out of the way, people, we’re demolishing your entire life and we’ll be building you a new one.”
It’s the same life, essentially; it’s just the same life but now it’s life-on-steroids; it’s a “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride” that lasts a good two decades before it settles down some; and then it’s still radical, but all wonderful and grateful and laced with grandchildren (or soon will be) and… yeah, that’s it.
So anyway, I drove down to Ellenton yesterday to take my dad and my brother Geoff out for brunch. (Mum and Dad are usually in the UK this time of the year, so it’s the first time in I don’t know how long we’ve done this together – it was a real treat.) And I thought about how you can be 82 years old (and eleven months minus a few days, but who’s counting…) and still be a dad, and still love your kids because the wonder of that relationship will never change.
And I felt profoundly grateful for the gift of a dad who I can talk with, and who can have brunch with me at 83-(ish); and I really, really wished that my children could have been there too.
My dad has been a dad more than 57 years now. My brother, Geoff and I sure have added some jalapenos to his salad (and some rocket fuel to his lawnmower… and some Rolling Stones to his church choir…)!
Love you, Dad – DEREK
Miss you, Andrew & Naomi – DAD(DY)
Andrew’s birthday is in the second half of the year. Your first father’s day was before Andrew was born, this year’s who is before Andrew’s 29th birthday.
Another fan of the “post-conception- pre-birth” theory.
But not true!
Naomi has it right. but I haven’t “approved” her comment for display yet!
Yes, we sure did add some sparks to our dad’s life!! The wonderful thing about being a parent is that you begin to grasp how great God’s love is!
Your riddle is underdetermined. Even of the top of my head, I can see at least two solutions (not counting Eric’s, which requires a pre-birth father’s day):
o You had a child born earlier, but who is now dead. (Notwithstanding that this would be a tasteless riddle.)
o You have spent time in a country where father’s day is on another day of the year, giving you a few double entries.
Another good try. But – fortunately – not true regarding the first or even the creative second notion….
I am afraid that you missed the point of my comment: A riddle (just like an exam question in the hard sciences) is only valid as long as it has a reasonably unique answer. In this case, there are at least a handful of conceivable explanations and a better game (for want of a better word) would be “twenty questions”.
Andrew was BORN ON Father’s Day!! (Was I allowed to answer this question because I obviously have connections?)
~Naomi
This is similar the the argument that Steve and I have every Christmas regarding how many Christmases we’ve been married. Hence, your first Father’s Day as a father was after Andrew was conceived and shortly before he was born. Your second was before Andrew was one year old. Hence your 30th is just before Andrew will be turning 29 later this year. Anyway, that is the logical approach.
Nice try… but no! Not counting pre-birth Father’s days. He has been out of the womb for all 30!
Andrew was actually born on father’s Day ! and this year his Birthday is tomorrow, when he will be 29 !!
Well, I’m sure you all have the correct answer now.
Andrew was born on Father’s Day in 1982… that became my first Father’s Day. We then kept having Father’s Day on a yearly basis…. Finally, Father’s day 2011 fell on June 19 (my 30th such celebration) – when Andrew was still 28.
Now of course he’s 29!
(A riddle can actually be a solved by fairly arbitrary and often unfair solutions (witness the duel between Bilbo Baggins and Gollum in The Hobbit!)
Actually, the unfair and arbitrary part was not a solution, but a faux riddle. If not for Gollum’s heat-of-the-moment mistake of accepting this “riddle”, it is very clear that it would have been thrown out by any impartial and competent judge. That amateurs sometimes get away with unfair actions does not legitimize the unfairness.