Dear Amon,

Today I came across this photo of you and was immediately struck by how much you look like me as a child.   And in this photo I see your grandmother Dindy’s crinkled up, twinkling eyes.   Those warm eyes come from  your great-granddaddy Lewis Barber.   As a parent, I find myself looking for the familiar in you.  I do the same with your cousins; John, Julia and George.  I see physical mannerism or features that remind me of members of our family.    And it makes me wonder how you will be like your mother and how you will be like me.   When you were born, we teased that you had all of our finest qualities and none of our flaws.  In reality you get both and your own unique qualities that are 100% Amon.

It easy to try to make you “our” son and place expectations that you will be all the things we want and expect you to be.  And that is a good thing in many ways as the fine qualities and values your mother, Jo and I bring to the plate will undoubtedly help you to become a high caliber human.   Jo calls it the Varsity Team.   And there are basic quality of grace, kindness, forgiveness and charity I hope I will instill in you, as they were given to me.

But in the desire for you to become what we want for you, there is a wide band for your own growth and development.   I oftentimes say that as humans we are allotted 80, 90 or maybe a century of living  – if we are lucky.  And in that period of time God gives each of us  a blank canvas and we then acquire a box of paints, brushes and tools which grows along the way.  The richness of our lives and experiences is what brings us new colors and brushes.   It’s up to us to make our own masterpiece, not others.  We must listen to our own voice.  We must test.  We must experiment and we must fail.   But fail often and quickly, so that we may learn from those mistakes to create a greater work of art that is our life.   And only you can show the world what that is.

Love, Daddy