Screen Free

This past Wednesday, during a basketball game, our youngest son drove hard to the hoop, was contacted by two opposing players, fell to the ground, and hit his head. In the aftermath, a teammate who was scrambling to get to the loose ball, also made contact with his head while he was laying on the ground. Our son came out of the game, and the following day, he was diagnosed with a mild concussion at the doctor's office. With that diagnosis came the two scariest words to any child in 2020: screen-free.

We spent the day together on Friday, and I must confess, at first, even I was a little daunted by the lack of screens on the horizon of our day. I pledged to be in this with him, and I was off my screens as well. I did admit to him that I checked my work e-mail once while I was upstairs, and he was on the couch. Still, we had a beautiful day together.

We remembered the fun we had when he was in Pre Kindergarten and went to Starbucks together. Though we didn't count the cars as we did when he was 3 and 4, we sat together at a table taking in the world around us.

We went shopping together. We got the car washed. We ferried a dear friend's child to a tennis lesson.

We went out for lunch. We listened to Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone being read to us. We read books.

We read books. I read an entire book that had been sitting on my nightstand that I had been reading in five and ten-page increments before falling asleep at night. I read the whole book. Yes, I read the entire book in one day. I even took notes on a yellow legal pad, instead of scribbling everything in the margins, although I did still mark up the book significantly.

I am a reasonable human being, and I know that we are not going to ever fully get rid of screens or our attachment to them. Remember I admitted earlier that I checked in on my work e-mail? Our tether to technology is not going to ever be entirely severed.

But we can be more thoughtful. We can make better choices. We can be more fully present to the people and the moments around us.

I fully recognize that I am more than halfway past the point when both of our children will live in the house with My Wife and me. We are closer to the day when they will leave to begin their own lives and continue to make their own indelible marks on this world. I know that day is coming, and my heart is already preparing for it.

While I wish the circumstances were different, I will forever cherish the screen-free day that dotted the landscape of my relationship with Brendan Watson Ricca.

I love you.