Father's Day Reflections

I am a father, but I am not a creation of my children.
I am a husband, but I am not a creation of my wife.
I am a son, but I am not a creation of my parents.
I am a brother, but I am not a creation of my siblings.
I am a Christian, but I am not a creation of my religion.
I am a student, but I not a creation of my teachers.
I am a teacher, but I am not a creation of my students.
I am educated, but I am not a creation of my education.
I am male, but I am not a creation of my gender.
I am a Mexican-European-American, but I am not a creation of my race or my ethnicity.
I am a Minnesotan, but I am not a creation of my state.

In one sense, I am the confluence of dozens, if not hundred, of stories. But I am more than just the confluence of these stories, I am responsible for sorting these stories. I must decide to own or disown them, to allow or disallow their infleunce, to weigh their significance, and to decide which of these stories I will let go further stream.

But I am not merely the sorter of inherited stories, I am the author of my own. This authoring is the most importnat part of my life. However, I do no have to author anything. I may choose not to assert my authoring rights and simply allow the strongest of the inherited stories be my story. I could choose to be passive. I could choose to add nothing to the inheritance I received for the inheritance I am giving. I could just play the role I am supposed to play in the strongest story given me.

Or I could write.

I want to be a person who authored something in life, who contributed something of unique worth, something of value which is more than the sum of my inherited stories. I want to respect and gather in all I can from my inherited stories, but not be controlled by them. I want to be aware of their presence in great detail, but I want to use them as tools for writing my narrative.