My First Words To You
[Letter #001]
Good morning, son.
Today, now, with these words, is the first time I will have ever spoken to you. Hopefully, these are just the first of many millions of words I will get to say to you someday. By the time you read this, however, I will have hopefully said far more to you over many years than what I’m able to put to text today. But, even before you are able to hear my voice, I feel like I have so much that I want to say to you now. These words, these letters, will simply take far longer to reach you.
My son, I don’t know at what age you will end up reading this, but I know that the world you live in will be a far different one from the one I was born into, which itself is a far different one from the one I write from now.
Our ancestors could rely on a consistent world, one that didn’t change much from day to day or year to year. Even revolutionary periods often took years. Declines of empires took decades or centuries. That’s not what we are seeing today. What I know is that things are changing faster than ever, and the future is very uncertain. My guess is that your world will be changing just as quickly, if not more so.
If you have children of your own, hopefully their world, or maybe their grandchildren’s world, will come closer to an equilibrium and once again provide consistency. I have a feeling that I will be writing to you often about this topic.
I hope that this will be the first of many letters that I would like to write for you. I hope that my letters will be able to serve as a sort of time capsule, a means for you to glimpse into the past. You’ll be able to see the world as I presently see it, which I admit is quite biased. What I want to share with you are my opinions, my worldview, as well as some facts and tricks that I’ve learned along the way.
I hope to show you some wisdom that I’ve had to earn the hard way, so that hopefully you won’t have to. And, I hope that you may be able to see where I am wrong, so that you can develop wisdom for yourself. Sometimes, I will want to write about things that concern the world in the past, present, and future. Sometimes, I will want to write about things that simply concern you or our family. My hope is that you will be able to take something from each letter to use in your life.
Right now, your mother is pregnant. She is in her first trimester, and there is a rapidly-developing ball of cells within her that we hope is you. It’s possible that her pregnancy fails and we will have to start again to try to get you here with us. I will let you know how that develops.
We have had to use something called “in vitro fertilization” to get your mother pregnant, which is something that I’ll explain to you another time. Because of this, we know that we have three chances to bring you into the world, and we know that all three chances have a Y chromosome. This is why I’m referring to you as “son.” Until you are able to express yourself on your own, I don’t know any better. So, please forgive me if you don’t see yourself as “son,” and I’ll change the pronouns once you are able to let me know.
I have so many things that I want to discuss with you. I want you to know that I very much want to hear your opinions, feelings, and beliefs as well. Until I’m able to speak to you directly, I fear that the conversation will be a bit one-sided. These letters will serve as a sort of journal for me. I hope that I won’t bore you.
I plan to print these letters to paper and keep them tucked away somewhere safe, just in case you’re not able to read them on the same sort of electronic devices that I’m using to compose them. My guess is that by the time you find them, paper will be the only way they will have been preserved. In a very big way, this is why I feel the urgent need to start writing.
Until next time, know that I love you very much.
Your father,
Papa Bear
[Author’s note: This is a series of letters that I intend to print to paper and deliver to my son, probably around the year 2040. You are more than welcome to read along. The links in the article are only for you, the reader, and will include citations, jokes, asides, and links to books or other items. If you happen to purchase anything through such a link, I’ll get a small commission. Every little bit helps, right?]
