Why write about the sometimes seemingly random and silly things that are going on in my life for the world to read (or some fraction of the world, certainly)? The question has been posed. And, frankly, it’s a good one. I’m gonna give it my best shot to answer. When G was pregnant with K-Man, I started a personal blog as a way to capture the sights, sounds and happenings of the pregnancy and impending life changes. After K-Man was born, I found the blog to be an easy way to keep my family up to speed on what was happening. (Cuz G-d knows the last thing we wanted to do was make phone calls, or even answer the phone.) But, a funny thing happened as I wrote about car seats, diapers, strollers and late night feedings – total strangers started reading my posts. They told me that they loved reading about the trials and tribulations of our new life as parents (and, specifically my life as a new dad). They made comments about their own experiences and encouraged me to think about writing a book. Write a book? Well, that was a lifelong dream of mine. I simply couldn’t ever find the right content. But, in K-Man and parenthood, perhaps I had. So, I wrote a book. And, then came the hard part: selling it. After six months, however, the book was sold to a publisher and hit the marketplace late last year. As I’ve written previously, G and I spent a good five years deciding whether or not to have a kid. Since arriving in this world, though, K-Man has provided us with the stuff that dreams are made of. Every single day is a dream. (Yeah – even when I’m sick.) But, the reality is that this parenting thing can also be a tremendously challenging pain in the arse. The more I wrote about the good, the bad and the ugly of parenting, the more comments I received that basically thanked me for “saying it.” You see it seems that we’ve all be trained (or are at least expected) to feel like parenting can only be great. All the time. But, as that most famous of dads, Brad Pitt, once said, “Parenting is the only thing that has ever given me so much joy and so much frustration.” So, I kept writing about that. My business partner (and podcast co-host) and I refer to this as, “Life. Medium Rare.” Somewhere between life well done and raw is where most of us live: Medium Rare. I write to provide a running commentary on this “medium rare” existence. I write because I’ve been encouraged to do so. And, I write because I love it. I don’t feel as though I’m splashing any deep, dark secrets by admitting that life isn’t always a bowl of cherries. For the most part, however, I’m always going to write about experiences that make me think. And, when I do, I always hope that, in turn, the readers think. I don’t need everyone (or anyone) to agree with what I write, as the thing about parenting is that while our experiences are often similar – it turns out that they are as unique as snowflakes. (It’s pretty much a given that any question will have multiple answers, many of which are in complete contradiction to one another. The right answer: Whatever works for you.) I can only comment on the experiences that happen in my little universe. It’s not better than anyone else’s. And, it’s potentially much worse than others. In the meantime, I just write. I’ll keep doing it. Here. On my other blogs. In more books. And beyond. I do it because I love to do it. And, I do it because along the way, I’ve managed to touch a few people who have told me not to stop. That’s good enough for me.
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