FEATURE
In the Game THE DAYS ARE LONG, BUT THE SEASON IS SHORT
BY BENJAMIN WATSON
I
love my children. I love my wife. They are blessings bestowed on me by the Lord. Sometimes I’m not as thankful as I ought to be. I take their presence for granted. Their questions become irritating; hearing the same knock-knock joke over and over loses its charm. But when I am traveling for work and I’m alone in a hotel room, there’s nothing I wouldn’t give to have my loud, noisy, chaotic family right there with me. When I become exhausted by the endless games of peekaboo or being used as a human chariot, I take a deep breath and remember that these moments are precious, and one day these daily activities will fade into cherished memories. Last off-season, I was reminded of how lucky I am. My whole family was traveling to visit relatives. Since
22 SEVEN MAY / JUNE 2018
we’re such a large group, we’ve got traveling through airports down to a science — my children are pros at taking off their backpacks and patiently going through security checkpoints. However, this particular trip stood out because nothing seemed to be going right. Out flight was delayed, our seat assignments landed us in separate areas of the plane, and my children were acting like… children. Tired, cranky, hungry, excited children. Add the rude stares and “Wow, you’ve got your hands full!” comments, and Kirsten and I were at the limit of our patience. Finally, we made it to our seats. As I took a calming breath, I wondered what would be expected of me while scuttling between my children and my wife over the next few hours. Instead of being thankful that we
were all on the plane and nothing terrible had happened, I was stressed out. And my kids were still acting like kids — chattering, enthusiastic cherubs, to be sure, but a minute of silence would have been welcomed. As I sat collecting my thoughts, a flight attendant who had been standing in the aisle walked in front of my seat and leaned toward me. Great, I thought. We haven’t taken off yet, and already there’s trouble. “I’m so happy for you,” the flight attendant said. “Excuse me?” I said, caught completely off guard. “It’s wonderful to see such a big, happy family like yours,” he said. “I’ve been married for twenty years, and my wife and I have been unable to have children. You are blessed.” After he walked down the aisle,
