More About Caleb

Normally I'm one of those guys who likes to avoid the very appearance of emotions. I mean, fine, I got 'em, you got 'em, no need to talk about 'em, right? Well, I don't know what's gotten into me the last couple of days, but I kind of feel like expressing them, electronically, before all the world. Here goes...

I love my son Caleb.

That's right. Here he is, all cute and cuddly.

Caleb, on Kluk.  From 2010-01

On Monday I was having a crisis. I'm almost done with a first draft of my book and I'm feeling very insecure. Sure, in the first draft the writing is poor, lacking mood and flow, but my real concern is whether the story itself is just dumb. So, we were on our way to fencing and I told him I was going to ask him a question and if the answer was negative, to just lie and if it was positive to tell the truth and then say he really means it (even if the book is dumb, I want to finish it and go on from there, so I only want to hear positive things about it). He agreed. So I asked if they plot was dumb. He exclaimed emphatically, "Absolutely not!" Then went on to state everything that he could come up with that is positive about the story.

Today (Thursday) he skipped school because most of his class is up north skiing all week. So he and I took a train to Vrabče to hike up to the top of Kluk (which means boy), a large hill not far from town. On the way there, I told him about the next couple of scenes in the book to get his reaction and ideas on tactics that a small army might use in the situations before them. Then he told me about his latest ideas with the fantasy world he is developing (that was fun because stories were just bubbling out of the ideas). Then I ran a very preliminary idea for a story past him and got his ideas on some motivations for the antagonist.

Also atop Kluk, the valley from which we hiked is visible behind. From 2010-01

Eventually, we made it to the top of Kluk. The forest was beautiful. We split a chocolate bar, then slipped and slid down the hillside in the snow. On the walk back to the train, we talked about dealing with the reality of wanting to do so much more than time will ever allow. Specifically, he's trying to decide on which sports and arts to focus.  It was a perfect day with him: physically demanding, intellectually stimulating, and fun.

He's a good kid, thoughtful and energetic, and we like him.
Peter