Opportunity Knocked

As regular readers of this column will acknowledge, I thrive on being read, on getting my message out there. I appreciate every response to my weekly columns. Conversation, even controversy, is what this community of writers and readers is all about. I welcome and enjoy your reactions. I appreciate the opportunity to connect with erudite readers who care about parenting. That would be you.So imagine my elation upon learning that I had been chosen to speak at the Miami Book Fair next month. Talk about an opportunity to be heard, to spread the word! Mitchell Kaplan, the organizer, is a gift to authors nationally and a hero to us locally. Mitchell has produced a world-class event. He invited me to join Dave Barry, Joyce Carol Oates, and the best known, best selling, best, best, best authors working today. Okay, so maybe I'm not on the same stage as the headliners but still an opportunity not to be missed, a once in a lifetime chance.

Except of course that I have a family commitment that same day. One of my kids is getting an award for some academic work. My wife and I and some of our other kids are driving across the state to see him walk across a stage with a hundred classmates.

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So I will miss speaking at the Miami Book Fair this year. I won't get to share my message about parenting. I won't get to sell any books. I won't get tohang out in the author's lounge with the best contemporary writers. I won't get to have a chance to chat with my heroes. ("Dave Barry, hi!" "Hi, David. How's your new book?" "Great, Dave. How about yours?")A buddy of mine suggested that I skip the ceremony, that my kid couldn't care less if I'm there or not. My buddy was fairly explicit in his recommendation that I advance my career by going to the book fair rather than driving for hours to see one of my kid honored for 30 seconds.

"He doesn't give a shit if you're there or not," he said."No, he doesn't," I agreed. My buddy raised his eyebrows wondering if I had gotten the message. "But I do."

So enjoy the Miami Book Fair without me. Go hear Dave Barry whose books are a hundred times funnier than mine. Go find Mitchell Kaplan and thank him for putting together the best thing to happen to Miami since the invention of alligators. Go support authors famous and otherwise by listening to their lectures and buying their books.

Maybe I'll write another book next year and Mitch will invite me to lecture at the Miami Book Fair in 2017. Maybe I'll get another chance to mill about in the author's lounge eating free food and getting interviewed by earnest young journalists. Maybe.But here's one thing I know for certain: the shining, fleeting moments of reveling in the rites of passage with my kids will not come again. I am going to bathe in every golden moment. Ten hours in a car and missing an opportunity to speak at the Book Fair in exchange for a chance to watch my kid walk across a stage for 30 seconds is a bargain, as good a deal as I am ever likely to make.