{"id":1641,"date":"2010-12-31T01:00:25","date_gmt":"2010-12-31T05:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dontow.com\/?p=1641"},"modified":"2011-01-02T17:50:57","modified_gmt":"2011-01-02T21:50:57","slug":"hed-grown-up-just-like-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.dontow.com\/2010\/12\/hed-grown-up-just-like-me\/","title":{"rendered":"“He’d Grown Up Just Like Me”"},"content":{"rendered":"

“My child arrived just the other day.\u00a0 He came to the world in the usual way.\u00a0 But there were planes to catch, and bills to pay.\u00a0 He learned to walk while I was away.” [1]<\/p>\n

Thus began the relationship between the baby boy and his father.\u00a0 But you expect that this is just a coincidence of events that kept the father from missing key events in his young son’s life.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
{And he was talking ‘fore I knew it, and as he grew, he’d say, “I’m gonna be like you, dad.\u00a0 You know I’m gonna be like you.”}<\/p>\n
- The young boy admired his father, and started saying that he wanted to grow up just like his father.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
  “When you coming home, dad?”\u00a0 The father replied as he was leaving “I don’t know when.\u00a0 But we’ll get together then.\u00a0 You know we’ll have a good time then.”<\/p>\n
  - This is beginning to sound like a routine.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
    
    \n{My son turned ten just the other day.\u00a0 He said “Thanks for the ball, dad, come on let’s play.\u00a0 Can you teach me to throw?”}\u00a0 The father replied “Not today.\u00a0 I got a lot to do.”\u00a0 The boy surprisingly said {“That’s ok.”\u00a0 And he walked away, but his smile never dimmed.\u00a0 Said, “I’m gonna be like him, yeah.\u00a0 You know I’m gonna be like him.”}<\/p>\n
    - The boy still admired his father and still wanted to grow up just like his father.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
      As the boy grew, the boy asked again {“When you coming home, dad?”\u00a0 “I don’t know when.\u00a0 But we’ll get together then.\u00a0 You know we’ll have a good time then.”}<\/p>\n
      - This was now no longer a coincident, but a frequently repeating routine that was imprinted in the boy’s mind.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
        {Well, he came from college just the other day, so much like a man I just had to say, “Son, I’m proud of you.\u00a0 Can you sit for a while?”\u00a0 He shook his head, and he said with a smile, “What I’d really like, dad, is to borrow the car keys.\u00a0 See you later.\u00a0 Can I have them please.”}<\/p>\n
        \n
        One of the rare times that the father wants to spend some time with his son, who is now a young man in college.\u00a0 But the son doesn’t have time to spend with his father.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
        {“When you coming home, son?”\u00a0 “I don’t know when.\u00a0 But we’ll get together then, dad.\u00a0 You know we’ll have a good time then.”}<\/p>\n
        \n
        Those words sound familiar to the father, because they were the exact words he said to his son many years earlier.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
        {I’ve long since retired and my son’s moved away.\u00a0 I called him up just the other day.\u00a0 I said, “I’d like to see you if you don’t mind.”\u00a0 He said, “I’d love to, dad, if I could find the time.\u00a0 You see, my new job’s a hassle, and the kid’s got the flu.\u00a0 But it’s sure nice talking to you, dad.”\u00a0 It’s been sure nice talking to you.”}<\/p>\n
        \n
        Circumstances have reversed.\u00a0 The father now has time in his hands, and to allay his loneliness, he wants to spend some time with his son.\u00a0 But the son is now acting just like his father many years ago.\u00a0 He has his own priorities, and spending time with his father is not one of his high priority items.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
        {As I hung up the phone, it occurred to me, he’d grown up just like me.\u00a0 My boy was just like me.}<\/p>\n
        \n
        Most likely the father now wished that he could turn the clock back, and relive his life again.\u00a0 However, time is a one-dimensional arrow, and the clock cannot be turned back.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
        {“When you coming home, son?”\u00a0 “I don’t know when.\u00a0 But we’ll get together then, dad.\u00a0 You know we’ll have a good time then.”}<\/p>\n
        I first heard this song “Cat’s in the Cradle” by Sandy & Harry Chapin more than 25 years ago when I was attending a “Time-Management” training course while working at Bell Laboratories.\u00a0 It made a great and lasting impression on me even though unlike the father in the song, I did spend time with my sons.\u00a0 But the song always makes me wonder whether I had my priorities right and whether I should have spent even more time with my sons.<\/p>\n
        To read the lyrics of this song, click on lyrics<\/a>.\u00a0 To hear the song sung by Harry Chapin, click on song<\/a>.<\/p>\n
        ____________________<\/p>\n
        [1]\u00a0 This article contains many quotes from the song “Cat’s in the Cradle” by Sandy & Harry Chapin.\u00a0 Since the song contains a lot of quotes, in order to distinguish quotes within quotes,\u00a0 the inside quotes are placed between “…”, and the outside quotes are placed between {…}.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
        “My child arrived just the other day.\u00a0 He came to the world in the usual way.\u00a0 But there were planes to catch, and bills to pay.\u00a0 He learned to walk while I was away.” [1] Thus began the relationship between the baby boy and his father.\u00a0 But you expect that this is just a coincidence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dontow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1641"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dontow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dontow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dontow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dontow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1641"}],"version-history":[{"count":35,"href":"http:\/\/www.dontow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1749,"href":"http:\/\/www.dontow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1641\/revisions\/1749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dontow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dontow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dontow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}