Blog 264 – 04.03.2016

Today in a rare weekend blog I would like to pay tribute to Jonathan David James Wallace White. Today is his twenty-sixth birthday. I saw him arrive on this stage those many years ago and loved him even before he made his appearance.

Actually I had his first two names picked out almost fifty years ago when I was still a teenager dreaming of having a son one day. And, Jay, I must say you are better than the best dream I ever had of you. I am grateful more than even this poet and writer can find the words to express that I got to be your dad and watch you grow into manhood. I wish only the highest and best for you.

I have always tried to be the best dad I could for you and have invested a lot of time, money, and attention hoping to help you get to a place where you could stand on your own. Your mother and I were almost forty when we brought you into this world and were concerned we might not live to see this day.

Happy twenty six, Jay. You are today the age my father was when I was born. I hope you are closer to forty when you marry and start a family of your own if you ever do. You do not owe me grand children or anything. I just hope you have a happy full life. I told you once when you were a boy that if they ever invented a Time Machine in the future that I hoped you would come back and see me as a grown man. I have lived to see you a grown man and find that sometimes I travel back in the time machine in my head to revisit wonderful memories of you at all the ages of your life. For that treasure trove of a lifetime of precious memories it is I that owe you the one true debt we all owe one another. Of all the Bible verses that fill my head one of my very favorites is: “Owe no man anything but to love one another.” I loved you as a baby, as a boy, as a teen, and now as a man. I always will.
Your loving father and as well,
Your friend and fellow traveler in Time and Space,
David James White