Shay wrote:
> Jeremy M. Praay wrote:
>  > I had that type of relationship with some of my uncles as well.  I
>  > remember having at least a couple long talks with 2 of them in
>  > particular (individually).  I could talk to them about things I
>  > would never mention to my parents.  In fact, I believe that my
>  > life probably would be quite different if I hadn't had those few
>  > long conversations.
> 
> Then maybe I can do some good (do you remember the topics of these 
> conversations?), but I need to start by setting a better example.
> 
> I have been feeling pretty bad about something that happened a few 
> months ago. I was a real food Nazi when I worked in an office, but since 
> moving to outdoor employment, I have started to relax a bit, relying on 
> my job to keep me lean. That's wrong, because my job won't keep me 
> healthy, just healthy-looking (if you call a grown man at 160 lbs 
> healthy-looking). Anyway, I was recently at a party at my niece's 
> mother's house and was cutting a cake I had made when my niece walked 
> into the room. I offered her a piece, which she refused. I KNEW she was 
> refusing because she knows that she needs to improve on the junk food 
> diet on which she has been raised. She's not overweight, but she is 
> ahead of schedule. At 13, she weighs as much as my 33yo wife. I should 
> have refused the cake myself, especially since I knew why my niece was 
> refusing it. I should have said, "You're right, kid, f*** that cake. 
> Tastes like sh** anyway." I HAVE been that smart many times in the past, 
> but that day I wasn't. I cut myself a slice and ate it, leaving my 
> niece, as the one person in the room sane enough to try and take care of 
> herself, all alone. Naturally, she eventually succumbed and had a slice 
> herself.
> 
> Can't take back the past, but that is the last time anything like that 
> will happen. I need to think about these things because my wife and I 
> might have a kid ourselves. I don't want to live a lie (or a mostly, but 
> not completely true) in front of my kid. One of the artists I linked to 
> in my "Lucky to have seen it" post declares on her myspace page that she 
> is "interested in natural health, yoga, spirituality, healing, the 
> vedas, meditation ... and things of that nature," yet I saw her at the 
> bar smoking, drinking, and carrying around an ass through which I'm 
> quite sure many a cheeseburger had passed. I'm losing faith in people. 
> *I* have to BE what I want to see - want my kid to see - in the world.
> 
>  -Shay

I dunno Shay.  My brother is as fine a goal-oriented, 
self-made-successful, athletic, health-conscious, generous, avucular 
example as ever a niece and nephew could want...
and he scares the living crap out of my kids.

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