As a father, I always keep an eye fixed toward the future, trying to discern what we might collectively be leaving behind for the next generation. I look at my children and realized that most of the major events that will fill their lives will take place beyond my control to do anything about them one way or another. This weighs heavily on my mind when I consider the tumultuous times we live in.

Kodiak is 8 years old, and Jupiter is 7. The changes shaping our world today are mostly invisible to our children at this point. They are appropriately sheltered from the worst of it, so far.

So how to best prepare them to face all that when they’re grown up? That’s the essential question that guides my choices as a parent. I don’t know what jobs Kodiak or Jupiter will choose some day. I don’t know who they will love or where they will live. What’s more important than any of that to me is that they both grow up to be good, responsible, self-actualized, happy people who live their own lives on their own terms. For their parts, Jupiter and Kodiak couldn’t make me more proud of them. And I’m thankful to have such an intelligent and perceptive co-parent in their mother Joy. All three of them inspire me to be the best father and the best man that I can be. And because of that, whatever may transpire in this strange, post-modern age will all be part of our amazing adventures together.

- Minke