Lester on dating

One of the reasons I started this blog was so the kids could have some insight into their parents' personalities, lives and thoughts -- some day when they're older and recognize that we are actually human beings and not just "parents."

Because it's my blog, meaning I'm the writer, Lester's perspective rarely gets top billing.

But he sent me an email last week that I really wanted to share here. I had to get his permission, because he's far more private than I am, and especially about stuff that goes on the Internet. He was initially reluctant -- "That email was meant for you." -- but I won him over.

There's nothing Earth-moving about it; it's just something sweet that I want the kids to know that their father was thinking about on a random January afternoon. Here's his email:

I recently read a New York Times story about how technology has hampered people in their teens and 20s when it comes to traditional dating.

A line from the story perfectly captures the problem: Instead of dinner-and-a-movie, which seems as obsolete as a rotary phone, they rendezvous over phone texts, Facebook posts, instant messages and other “non-dates” that are leaving a generation confused about how to land a boyfriend or girlfriend. 

This morning I was reading a Washington Post story about a man who gave President Obama a medal he received while fighting in Vietnam. The story was essentially about how this man (now 68) had an impact on the future President during that chance encounter nearly five years ago. But one paragraph in the story near the end brought me back to that previous story and made me sad because today's daters are just lame.

I really hope our boys are these type of daters:

Smith’s life outside of work came together nicely, as well. A brief early marriage had fallen apart. Then came one night when Smith saw two women stranded next to a broken-down car by the roadside.
Smith fixed their tire and was smitten by one of the women. “I told her, ‘Look, I know you don’t talk to strangers, but you seem to be a real nice lady. And I know you don’t give your number to strangers, but I’m going to give you my number, and tell you where I work and where I live, and if you foresee that you want to call me, maybe we could go have a cup of coffee or a cup of tea,’ ” he said.
It took Claudia Howard six months to phone. They have been married 32 years and have two grown children, a daughter and a son.
                                                         ******
Isn't that sweet? I hope the boys and Clair read this some day and think about a few things:

1. Their father had hopes for Cary and Dean about how they'll treat women.
2. This says something to all of them about how their father treated women.
3.  In the middle of the workday, he was thinking about them and their future.