The Big Revelation

Posted at 10:25 am on Jul 30, 09 by Michael Hearn.

It occurred to me the other day that my two boys (9 and 7) think I am old. As I was walking through the halls at church, several of our boys’ friends said “Hello Mr. Hearn” to which I replied, a cool, “what’s up?” Just then my eldest son, Trey, started talking to a friend.  When I turned to look at his friend a cold blank stare was written all over his face. After I joked around for a second with the young man I told Trey to come with me and asked him why his friend would not talk with me? Trey replied…

“Dad, he just gets a little nervous.” “Nervous,” I said “why would he be nervous?” Trey graciously told me it was because I was…gulp, “old.” I can hear it still ringing in my head like the old movie, The Christmas Story, when the young boy keeps hearing “you’ll shoot your eye out.” “Old, I’m not old,” I thought to myself. Just then I remembered an event that took place in my life the first time I remember thinking my dad was old.
It was dad’s thirtieth birthday party and I was nine years old. Black balloons and banners filled the living room while everyone joked around with my dad about turning into an old man. I still remember the cake and the food as the kids played hide and go seek in the back yard and the adults sat and talked about nothing. Wow, what sticks in the mud, sitting and talking are you kidding me? “It’s your birthday,” I thought to myself “let’s have some fun and play!”
Well, now twenty-one years have gone by and I am the one sitting and talking while Trey is running around thinking “let’s have fun.” Oh, and today, I will be turning thirty and my sons will be looking at me the same way I looked at my dad. I guess that’s how it works…regardless, to all those parents out there that are “old” let’s show our kids how young we really are…. I’ll go first. Hey, Trey and Philip, watch this…