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Hey Dad,

I just can't help it. I don't plan for it … or try to conjure it up, but for some unexplained reason, every once in a while, I enter some kind of Jules Verne fifth dimension of fathering and actually travel through time. It sounds weird, doesn't it?

Well, it happened again this week.

It was bedtime. I was sitting in the hallway reading about Megan floating away on a mattress in the great Johnstown Flood of 1889 … when I got sucked through time and deposited into the future.

As I stood to say my last goodnight, I was an old man, and instead of reading to my children, I'd just finished a favorite book with my grandchildren. My children were all grown up and THEIR children were in their "old beds" listening to me read just like I did to their moms and dads.

My eldest son Ben, who was now a dad himself of several children, lay stretched out in the dim hallway remembering fondly the times he and his brothers and sisters listened to me read. From the look on his face, I knew that the memories he'd experienced as a boy felt comforting and reassuring now as a man.

The time travel didn't last long, and instead of tucking my grandchildren into bed, I kissed my own children goodnight and plopped into bed next to my wife.

Later on, as my bride was snoozing, I lay in the dark thinking about the future. What would MY kids tell THEIR kids about me (Granddad)? Would they recall listening to me read at night from the hallway, the backyard campouts in the cold, the canoe trips, the popcorn-filled video nights, and laughing around OUR table at our favorite restaurant?

Or, would they remember the things that I promised to do but didn't … or the things that I should've done, but for a hundred "legitimate" reasons, never got around to?

Let me ask you, Dad. What will your children tell your grandchildren about you? Will they tell about the family vacations you took, the board games you played at night, and the times you talked with them while sitting on the edge of their beds, or will they tell them that you were always too busy to do things like that?

So, Dad why don't you travel into the fifth fathering dimension for a moment and then do something with your children this week in light of your trip.

To infinity and beyond … you 'da dad!

© 2007 Todd Wilson. Used by permission.

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