The day before I left for my 25th college reunion, I told our 10-year-old son, “This is, of all the times of my life, the most likely time for me to cheat on your mother. You know, to smootch with another woman.”
“Why is that?” asked the lad, who knows his father well.
“Well, it’s been 25 years since I was at college, and there’s, you know, unfinished business and all that,” I explained. “Plus, I’m still young enough to get it done, if you can imagine that.”
“Humph,” he said.
Then I went to the reunion.
When I returned home, my son and I chatted about the idea of my being unfaithful. I told him that I didn’t pursue it. And that I thought I did have some opportunities. (Shoot, everybody had opportunities.)
Then I told him why I’d brought up such an uncomfortable subject: “When you are married and go to your college reunion, you might face the temptation and the opportunity to be unfaithful to your wife. When you do, I don’t want you to think that your dad was faithful because he didn’t have the opportunity. I want you to remember that I did, and I chose not to accept the opportunity. Your father is not faithful to your mother because he lacks ambition or opportunity. It’s a choice.”
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