If I Were Patrick Swayze

Thanks for not posting any spoilers Roy! As for the situation with your boys, you may want to save that story for your Dr. Phil episode. Just kidding! I think Dr. Phil would have to do a week special on my family. It is incredible though how this book has hit me as the father of a 4 ½ year old boy.

I like your idea that No Authority = Freedom. And what is this freedom? This freedom is arguably a part of the fantasy. It is the freedom and/or fantasy to have no meaning. No meaning outside of survival. I can’t help but imagining myself as the father (the John Wayne or Patrick Swayze figure) forging a hopeful future out of nothing for my son. It is the duty of our very existence to try despite our ultimate and natural destiny. I devoured the book based on this idea. The idea and fantasy of being more than nothing. The idea of “giving” this to my son because it is the greatest gift.

The idea of giving this gift is something that could be thought of as sadly impossible and finally just a fantasy. Or is it? It makes me extremely emotional and ultimately happy just to imagine the possibility. Like catching a shooting star in the corner of your eye, I would argue that the ending is perfect because the father’s journey, for a moment, was given meaning as a flash of brilliance in a sky that was no longer there.