🔥Key Takeaways 🔥
Small moments matter.
Keep learning your kids.
Connection doesn't have to be expensive.
Fried Pies and Fanta
My son is 13 now.
I've discovered this is a strange season of fatherhood. He's becoming more independent, developing his own interests, and changing faster than I can keep up. Sometimes I find myself wondering, How do I connect with him now?
So this past weekend, we did something he inexplicably loves…or at least I hoped he still loved.
We drove about twenty minutes to a little country gas station to buy a fried pie and a Fanta.
That's it.
No grand adventure. No carefully planned father-son outing. I didn't have to max out a credit card.
Just a drive, a fried pie, and an orange soda.
Nine months ago, he thought it was the greatest thing in the world. At 13...who knows?
Thankfully, he still did.
His face lit up when he realized where we were headed.
Fatherhood keeps teaching me the same lesson: connection usually isn't built through extraordinary moments. It's built by noticing the small things your kids enjoy today—and being willing to meet them there before tomorrow's version of them wants something entirely different.
Sometimes the best investment you can make in a relationship costs about six dollars and a little bit of gas.
Well...at least today.
We'll see what tomorrow brings.
My son insists I remind you to subscribe to the YouTube channel. Apparently, there are some really good interviews over there...and according to him, I should probably mention that more often.
There ain’t no glory in the hustle.
Work has dignity. Exhaustion doesn't. There's no medal for burning yourself out and calling it commitment. Your family benefits more from your presence than your burnout.
Mark Manson Stole My Idea…Again
Ok, Mark has no idea who I am.
But, I recently wrote about learning to live with unanswered questions in an article called The Uncomfortable Skill of Not Knowing. Apparently Mark Manson and I have been thinking about the same thing lately. If you want the version with more research, an awesome Phil Collins T-shirt, and less discussion about driving to Oklahoma with a dead phone battery, his recent clip is excellent.
Until next time—
🔥Keep the fires burning,
— Clay
P.S. I’d rather grow Campfire Gentleman through real connections than algorithms.
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