Out of the Newsroom

I’ve been wrestling with two goals for my blog over the past couple of weeks–well, three actually if you count just finding the time to work on anything that falls into the “fun” category of life.

First up is that I am working on a redesign of this blog as well as moving it to a new online host. For any of you who have tackled the latter item, you know its not necessarily easy or obvious on how to accomplish it seamlessly. To try to do the redesign at the same time seems logical, but really isn’t.

Anyway, I was making good progress on this front with all the “behind the scenes” stuff, when I ran into a really nasty episode of carpal tunnel syndrome.

Now I freely admit that I was one of those skeptics on the whole carpal tunnel problem front. Seemed like a dodge for people who just didn’t want to work, or wanted a fancy new keyboard/chair/ergonomically whatever kind of setup.

A few days of pain alternating with numbness in both of my hands (though much worse in the right one) has made me retract my snide-ass comments and rethink the whole issue.

That and the less-than-fashionable wrist braces that I frequently sporting on both arms now.

But I am back at the keyboards and soldiering on.

As a kid, we had a friend of the family who would invite us for dinner on a Friday or Saturday night. At some point in the proceedings, he’d ask my parents if we had seen his latest “vacation slides”?

If they made the mistake of answering no, there was the instant appearance of a Kodak “Carousel” projector and a screen to show off hundreds of photos from the latest family trip.

I only had to suffer through it a few times, but it was usually…in a word…brutal.

Thus I will not subject you to the same here.

This photo is from the activities of the past weekend, when our older daughter Katy became something her father never was–a college graduate. So here’s my favorite shot from the event.

If for some strange reason you are wanting to see all of the vacation…uh I mean graduation slides…turn off the lights near your computer and let us take you on a trip to the University of Maryland commencement ceremonies.

Click over to this web gallery page link to see all of the pictures: http://gallery.me.com/kirkv#100114

Feel free to ooh and ahh on your own.

Just looking at the pictures of the younger daughter from last night, as she was headed off to her Senior Prom. As objectively as any father can put it, she was gorgeous and says this morning that she had a great time.

And like any father, I don’t really want to know much more detail than that.

We are in one of those moments where life is marking some major turning points. Maddie, the aforementioned younger daughter, is wrapping her high school years. Shortly, she will be focused on heading to college at Jacksonville University this fall.

This is more remarkable than you can know, because once upon a time we weren’t even sure that Maddie would make it through high school because of the medical challenges she faced. Thus her accomplishments of the moment are even more precious to us.

Her older sister, Katy, will wrap up her college years next weekend, graduating with her Bachelor of Science in Psychology, from the University of Maryland. This will officially put her ahead of her Dad, who never got around to finishing up that whole college degree thing.

Katy isn’t quite done with the college experience, as she will soon move down into Washington, DC in the fall to begin graduate school at The George Washington University. She will be a research and teaching assistant, working towards a PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience.

Talk about surpassing your old man, and then some.

Please allow me the moment of fatherly boasting, but I couldn’t be prouder of both of our daughters.

For what they have achieved and for who they are.

They really are remarkable young women in their own right, and have amazing futures ahead of both of them. Fortunately for them, they inherited their looks and intelligence from their Mom. Their sense of humor and ability to spend, well that they got from me.

Now you’ll forgive me for cutting this post short, but I have to go see what is in my eye that keeps making it water up so much. Must be some dust or an errant eyelash.

Plus, I don’t understand why I feel like someone just punched me in the gut.

So I ask the Mother of my children what she might like for lunch on this Mothers Day, and she says “Five Guys”.

Not that surprising, as the chain of burgers and fries is a family favorite. But today? I ask if there might not be some other place she would prefer for lunch.

She says no, so Five Guys it is.

While just the two of us are eating, the woman who brought my two daughters into the world says that we need to order lunch to go for Maddie, the younger daughter, because she is at work and “starving”.

How does Mom know this? Because the daughter sent her text about an hour ago and asked if she could be brought some Five Guys for lunch. Because she was “starving”, naturally.

Thus, Mom wanted Five Guys for lunch. Of course.

Because that is what means to be Mom. Even on Mother’s Day.

Here’s the thing that I’m not sure most women truly understand, that those of us on the other side of the gender aisle are pretty much in total awe of the ability to conceive and bring a child into this world.

Of course we males have a significant part in the whole process, though it does seem like the primary points for the father are a brief (and hopefully enjoyable) contribution of some genetic material in the beginning.  Then there is being yelled at about nine months later for “doing this to me”–usually heard in the throes of labor.

There is then a blur for about sixteen years after that, and then the next significant event usually involves the question, “Dad can I have the keys to the car.”  This is roughly the sum total of highlights of being a father that don’t involve one’s wallet as the primary reason for our existence. Well, maybe that is not all of the highlights, but it sure seems like it most of the time.

But for women who make that transition to being the Mothers of our children, the journey is so much different.  Of course there is the initial physical one, that forever changes the beauty of a woman’s youth (Hollywood types with personal trainers and private gyms notwithstanding.)  No matter the physical changes to be endured over the months of pregnancy, there is something near mystical about the beauty of a pregnant woman.

In that same time, there is another change that takes place in that journey into motherhood that is perhaps even more amazing.  The mental process of becoming a Mom is not one to be ignored, just because it doesn’t have any equivalent change in outward appearance.

I’ve seen women endure things during pregnancy that would have brought the toughest and strongest man to his knees, only to sob like a little frightened boy.  Any man who tells you otherwise is either a liar or terminally single.  The mental toughness of a Mom rivals that of any pro athlete.

Somehow in the crucible that is carrying a child to birth, is also the forging of that rare combination of a protector with the heart of lioness, the nurturer with the patience of a saint, and that creature who can love and care for their own, no matter what that child may do or become over the years to follow.

That amazing creature that we know as a Mother.

On this day which we honor all Moms with an extra bit of appreciation for all the things they do, we should take a moment or two to just be amazed at their many near-super-human abilities.  You can have all the comic book heros like Superman, Spiderman, and Ironman that you want–but the only real-life super heros I’ve ever met are those true Womder Women who have the simple title of being a Mom.

Happy Mother’s Day to each and every one of them.

As a young man, my Dad would–on occasion–give me advice about something I was determined to do, but probably shouldn’t. Being a father myself these many years later, I realize that the skill involved was in trying to encourage your child on what the right thing to do might be–without actually telling them what to do.

The genius in my Dad’s way of doing this was to make it a bit of southern homespun philosophy, not unlike the kind that Andy Griffith would dispense to his son Opie on television.

In my Dad’s version of this father-son “moment of zen”, he would say on more than on occasion that whatever I was thinking of doing was perhaps “something a smarter man might avoid.”

It was his gentle way of telling me that I might be close to the edge of my abilities or my sanity.

He was kind enough never to specify which.

I bring all this up, because I’ve embarked on something that has my Dad’s words playing in my head.

After proposing for more time than I care to admit, that the television station I work for should do some editorial commentary as part of our newscasts…they finally took me up on the idea.

And because apparently there were other folks who got the same advice that my father tried to pass along to me, guess who ended up being the person who ended up with the task of presenting these commentaries on the air?

That’s right, yours truly. Because I believe if you are going to push hard enough for an idea to get to be a reality, you better be prepared to do whatever it takes to make that reality happen.

You can take a look at what I’m doing as part of my regular job these days by clicking here.

Only time will tell if Dad would have been right on this one, too.