“If I only asked...” is something that pops in my mind on occasion. Usually it involves a new or strange situation I am in where I could use some advice, and the advice I am seeking is from someone who is no longer alive. If I only asked my Mom this, or my Auntie that... you get the idea. On occasion I even think of what a past leader – government or business – would think of current affairs and how they would react to them. In some cases we can derive information from their writings during their time, if they exist.

As I perused the pages of A Father’s Legacy, I thought of these very queries. What questions would my children or anyone after I left this mortal coil have of me, if they did have any? You see, A Father’s Legacy is a journal of writing prompts for a father that would ideally be passed down to future generations. It was given to me by my favorite Mother-in-Law when my first child was born, but it sat mostly untouched over the years and moves. I only finished it this summer around the time said child got their drivers license, so you can guess how diligent I was to it.

Can someone have takeaways from a mostly blank book? Certainly!

It’s very, very Hallmark – The book was purchased at a Hallmark store, and the prompts are in a style taken right off the greeting cards they are known for. There’s an assumption that I am the father of an idyllic nuclear family – think the Cleavers of Leave it to Beaver (if that means anything to you) – and the child of an idyllic nuclear family and that all is perfect in the world. The prompts are all very positive, even those that ask about “tough” times in life. I recall in my writings I had in some instances challenged or altered the prompts to better suit my own reality. Of course I say this with no disrespect to any friends who have made a good living working for said card conglomerate.

One Prompt at a Time – When I got this I thought I would just sit down and do a Vulcan mind meld into the pages of A Father’s Legacy, but that was far from the case. Even with said softball prompts, it is sometimes hard to put down all of one’s thoughts and feelings, especially if you are not in the right mindset. So I took it one at a time. Some writings went beyond the space allocated and others were a sentence or 2. I started from the beginning however over time I was jumping around for whatever I thought would be easy to respond to. In order to finish it started from the beginning and completed those I left blank for whatever reason. Another thing I did on my own was note the date that I scribed my responses.

Proud of my accomplishment – When I finished the last prompt response, I felt good that I completed this endeavor. That being said, I was not proud enough to go back and re-read or edit it, as I felt that what I wrote will stand on its own.

This is not the first time I completed a writing prompt book, as List Your Self and even 1 Page at a Time were similar, insightful journeys into my life. Where I still have the former, I misplaced the latter at some point over the years. I plan to also hold on A Father’s Journey. I am contemplating breaking the binding of both books and scanning them to preserve them digitally as well in paper format.

I highly recommend taking on such a writing journey, whether it’s with this prompt book or a similar one – I actually had another one of these journals still blank and sent it to a friend recently, and upon random perusal of journals in stores there are similar ones for fathers, mothers and almost anyone for that matter. Where I am not sure if you can still get A Father’s Journey in a store, I have seen copies of it online, even in e-book format. Whether or not your own life story will be eagerly sought out in future generations, completing this journal was overall a positive reflective process on my life thus far, and could be for you too. In the spirit of the holidays, it would make a great gift for someone or perhaps yourself.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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