I am enthralled and exuberated! Neurons in my brain are firing at unprecedented speeds. Thoughts coalescing, growing and then diverging again. Many of them! Synapses are firing with force and energy. There is a new idea in the old grey matter and it is causing mayhem. This idea feels right and worthy and even worth while. Perhaps I am at the start of something wonderful and beautiful. Something that will grow into a reason for my being. Perhaps this idea is worthless and will fizzle and die in time. There is risk but there is possibly huge reward. A reward so big that I am wondering if I am the right person to try and grasp it. I know I should be, must be, but am I?

Last year, a friend and I took our two boys on a boy’s weekend. The idea was to spend good time with our sons on their own. Added to that we wanted them to experience something completely alien to their way of life, to their experience, and to their accumulated base of knowledge. We were going to have fun! We camped in Augrabies Falls, we saw the Sishen Iron Ore Mine, and toured the Kimberley Big Hole. I loved watching my sons face light up and his eyes grow big as he saw and experienced stuff that blew his mind. The time we spent together was precious beyond measure.

This morning saw me on the road doing a short run (Two Oceans is soon). I then dropped the kids off at school and joined a mate for breakfast. Waffles and ice cream, mmmmmm. More exciting than the syrup high, far more fascinating than the news or weather was the idea!

I have long been concerned about the moral fibre of society. My kind of role model seems to be non existent although role models of all varietals are everywhere. I do not want to abandon the upbringing of my children to their school teachers and their friends and their parents. I do want to do all that I can do to assist my sons to grow into decent, loving and good human beings. I want to try and build a relationship with my sons that will help them through their difficult teenage years. I also want to provide them with a network of local role models that they can go to when in need and learn from at any other time. Until today, I had no idea how to get this right. Truly speaking, I still don’t, but there is an idea!

My friend suggested that we create a group of like minded dads and their sons. The mental, spiritual and emotional well being of our children must be one of our highest priorities. We then invest time and energy into creating experiences for our children that revolve around specific issues that they are experiencing or specific values that we would like them to attain. We would include some new rituals / traditions to make this an exclusive and special experience, something that they will look back on and remember with pride and joy. We will hike, we will camp, we will play games and we will solve some cleverly crafted puzzles all directed at building special father / son relationships and instilling deep values into their little spirits.

This is going to take a lot of effort and time, but the outcome is so important, it is worth the investment of my life. My description does not explain exactly what we are going to do, that will all evolve with time. Nonetheless it is all about quality father and son time in a world that is madly busy. It is about sharing the real joy of life with our children.

The idea is just an idea. Either way the investment will mature in a couple of years and the return will be priceless.....