becoming daddy

Lately, I’ve become obsessed with getting a bag from Saddleback Leather (specifically, a Large Classic Briefcase, in Tobacco Brown.  Here’s a handy link in case you are looking for birthday present ideas).  They’re expensive, but come on … they last 100 years!  

I was trying to justify buying one to figure out why I was so drawn to this specific idea and company, besides their simple awesomeness. I think it’s their motto that really struck me: They’ll fight over it when you’re dead.  Now, I didn’t really take that verbatim; after all, I don’t want the two of you fighting over something so silly.  (Plus, the apocalypse is coming, so we’re all going to be eaten by zombies at the same time anyway since Daddy is a silly pacifist).  But, it did make me consider my legacy and what I *am* going to be leaving you with (in case I’m wrong about the zombie thing).  And, it also reminded me how cool I used to think your Grampa’s stuff was when I was growing up and how great it would be when I had awesome stuff like his too.  His wallet was all cool and beat up and his Bible was worn and his old Army boots were amazing and he had the coolest Stanley Thermos and WHEN WAS I GOING TO BE BIG ENOUGH TO STEAL HIS STUFF? Sadly, I never did grow big enough to borrow his clothes or fill his shoes (which is probably a metaphor for something, but you’re both to young for that).  Of course, it wasn’t the things that I really wanted as much as it was to be the awesome man that had all this cool, manly stuff.  

Which brings me back to the bag for a minute. I think deep down what I really want even more than the actual bag to be is the type of person that *needs* this type of thing.  To be someone who will earn it and use it, and will get awesome scratches and stains on it and tell amazing stories because of them.  Persons like your Grampa, who spends his week teaching and his weekends in his garage being the most incredible artist and who spent nearly every summer for 20 years doing missions work, or your Papa who goes to Africa every other year to work building a school or a church or a clinic or something, or your Seattle Austin Raleigh Uncle Chris and the work he does in Haiti and South Africa.

So, I’m choosing to take inspiration from a simple leather bag in the hopes that it turns me into someone that you can be proud of and want to be like, but most of all, I’m hoping that that both of you will grow into my shoes.  

Love, Daddy