The Bear Necessities of life include dancing with your children.

Good morning all, the end of another week and the end of my 47th year yesterday. Each year around this time I think about all the things I remember and it gets me into a little funk. You know the mood, when you have a hard time staying positive and you catch yourself a few times a day slipping into deep thoughts. Your spouse or close friend looks at you and ask what wrong. I can't help but to look back and question some of my actions in the past and play "what if" scenarios in my head. I've been told over and over that I'm too hard on myself by so many other people but why isn't that a good thing. I thought that's what being "driven" was. Not accepting mediocre and trying to improve yourself. I do my best and I realize my human capacities and have learned to live with who I am. But Still I miss some of my past and times like this are almost melancholy instead of joyous. This may seem hard to understand for most of you but here is what caused me to look back at my life.

Walt Disney pictures re introduced the Jungle Book this week. You know what they do, limited re-release and marketing campaign to spark the new kids to want to enjoy a timeless classic. Disney is great at cranking up the marketing machine to make money from 40 year old movies. This movie brings back lots of memories for me. 1967 My Mother took me to see this movie when it first came out on the big screen and when you are 8 it seems huge. I think she wanted to see it and I was just the happy recipient of her childhood desires. It was just her and I spending an afternoon together. I couldn’t tell you what my two older brothers did that day but it was the only time I remember going to the movies alone with my Mom. Sitting in the dark and sharing popcorn and eyes glued to the screen. I didn’t get the meaning of the story then but I treasure that memory. Fast forward to 1992 and my son is 3 years old and we are watching the video of it for the first time, just him and I. I think we bought it on a shopping trip to Target and watched it when we got home. His Mom was out with her Mom for the day and so we popped some microwave popcorn and enjoyed the movie. About half way through he looks at me and says Dad, Baloo dances just like you do and he giggled. So I stopped the movie and backed it up movie and both got up and danced like Baloo the bear whenever he danced in the movie. To hear the laugh of a child and to see the joy and sparkle when they are having fun is priceless. We would dance from that day forward whenever we watched the movie. Mrs. Twisted and I watched the movie for the first time Tuesday night via Netflix, of she had never seen the movie before and I could quote the lines before they were spoken. All that was missing was the popcorn, and my son who is now 18 and almost 7’ tall. Big as a bear. lol

Wednesday I had my radio on super shuffle (Satellite radio) and who knows what song is going to play next. Well N-Sync comes on and sings Bye, Bye, Bye. The memories flood back again. I know I know N-Sync? My kids loved the boy bands at the time and they were kids who grew up on all music. Well when you have a 8 year old daughter watching the Disney channel and seeing the boy band do the catchy song and all the fancy foot work what else is their to do but dance right? Come on Daddy dance with me! Well before long she knew the dance steps to the whole song but I would only dance when the chorus would come on. What fun to pretend to be boy band singers and dance with no cares in the world? It was just like Baloo the dancing bear joins a boy band but she didn’t care. Her Daddy was dancing and playing with her.

I know we get old and the memories fade but when you hear “that” song or see “that” movie, the joy rushes back like it was yesterday.

It’s easy to get old because it just happens and you can’t stop it or even slow it down but no matter what my memories keep me young at heart.

Life is Good