by Greg Bean

Created on: July 04, 2008   Last Updated: July 05, 2008

Father of the groom: 'I'm not responsible!'

I don't mean to sound like I'm whining here, but I think I've led a pretty responsible life, and all that responsibility has turned me into a shadow of my former self (a larger shadow, if you're looking at the shadow of my waistline).

I don't think I started becoming very responsible until I enrolled in college. Before that,my greatest responsibility had been a tank full of guppies. I accidentally killed them, however, when I grabbed what I thought was the old plastic bleach bottle I used to mix their special water and filled the tank with actual bleach instead. The fish died. They were clean when they died, but they died nevertheless.

After I started college, things changed, and I had to become responsible. I was responsible for my tuition, and living expenses, and grades and a part-time job and paying the rent on time. In graduate school I was responsible for my own studies, but also responsible for teaching a few classes, preparing lectures, grading papers.

Then the real world barged in and I got really responsible. First, I was responsible for a wife, then a mortgage, a dog, then a child, and all that entails. (Granted, my wife shared all those responsibilities, but if she wants to complain about this, she can write her own column, or a letter to the editor, who would be me.)

I don't think I have to tell any parents out there how responsible you have to be when you have kids and want to raise them right. And as life rolls along, the responsibilities only grow.

In my case, there were more kids, and a career and bills and car repairs and Little League and doctors' visits and a bigger house. There were soccer practices, and tournaments, and wrestling matches and football games. There were parent teacher conferences, and leaky roofs and auto repairs. There was always something wrong with the plumbing, and a plumber doesn't even answer the phone for under a hundred bucks. I could go on and on, but most of you know what I'm talking about.

These days, I'm not only responsible for my own life, I'm responsible for running the editorial department at these newspapers. There are some among my readers who tell me frequently I could be doing a better job (the guys who recently wrote me messages beginning "Dear Nitwit," and "Dear Greg Goon" for example). Still, I struggle to the best of my ability to keep our publications interesting, and valuable, and profitable, and keep the people who work for me employed. I enjoy that responsibility,

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>