Do-Over!
Haunted by the failures of his youth, a middle-aged husband and father goes back to school—elementary school.
Written by Filed under Arts & Entertainment, Life
People always say, “If I knew then what I know now….?” Did knowing what you know now make any difference?
Yeah, I think I would have been a lot less harsh on myself at the time if I had known how little impact certain things had on others. Things that I had done that I had built up over time—if I had known how little they mattered in the long run I wouldn’t have let them irritate me over the years.
What do you want readers to take away from the book?
I want them to reflect on their own mishaps and mistakes, and think about how their failures made them who they are. And also to reconnect with some of the people they left behind who they thought they lost forever. A really moving aspect of the project was making contact with people who I had been too embarrassed to make contact with because of what had happened between us. Going back was a one-hundred-percent joyful experience. Whatever past misdemeanors we committed were left in the past.
What did your children think of your project?
My eldest daughter, Olivia, was properly mortified. When I told her about going to prom she said I wasn’t going within 50 miles of her prom. My second oldest, who was 12 at the time, was much more into it. She was always making suggestions like, “Do a belly flop in the camp lake, dad,” and “wear SpongeBob pajamas.” Of course, I did neither of those things, but I liked the spectrum that they represented between delight and censure. I tried to incorporate that tension as much as possible into the book.
Were your kids worried about dad making a fool of himself?
I’m reconciled to the fact that a day doesn’t go by when I don’t make a fool out of myself. But foolishness is not always as a negative thing, because foolishness implies risk and risk implies ambition and doing something that is occasionally meaningful.
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