Perfect People

The door flies open and a little girl of about five or six pounces on the bed, butterfly net in hand, to roust her sleeping parents. The couple in bed sits up smiling, honestly looking better than I do after coffee and a shower. They smile at her and the father jumps out of bed, takes her in his arms and swings her around the room. Her too blonde hair blowing around her small, smiling face. The little girl takes the father's hand and leads him outside for a day of catching butterflies and identifying harmless, non-stinging insects.
After the bugs are identified and released, the father and daughter relax in a well shaded hammock, face to face, solving the world's kid problems. Why dogs walk on four legs. Why he has a big dark hair growing between his eyes. How he met her mother. Cataloging answers from the most trusted person in the world.
The day winds to a close and the little girl is tucked in bed. Before she closes her eyes she reaches under her pillow and takes out a card in a purple envelope. "Happy Father's Day Daddy, I love you." she chirps before dropping her head on the pillow with eyes pinched shut. Shut so tightly that none of the love and excitement she feels can escape, locking the memories of the day away. She falls asleep, father watching, with a big smile on her face.
Sound familiar? Yes, this was a Hallmark greeting card commercial I saw on television this morning. There are many similiar to this one for every occasion we celebrate. Perfect looking people enjoying a perfect event. They sleep in ironed clothes with combed hair, brushed teeth and makeup. Fat, smooth pillows and ornate comforters. Blinds open just enough to allow the perfect amount of morning light, and a pre-caffeine smile that can come only from a fairy tale.
But as unreal as this sounds, isn't this how we remember our best days? Most of us don't look like the models on television. We sleep in pajamas with holes in them and compare bed heads in the morning. I've always thought that the worse my hair looked in the morning the better I slept the night before! But when we sit together eating breakfast I feel like Brad Pitt. Well more like Robert Redford, but you know what I mean. I'm enjoying breakfast with my group of perfect people. My family. My television commercial. I loved explaining the kid mysteries to my daughter almost as much as love telling adult jokes with her now. My wife and I don't talk about the same things we did 25 years ago, but they are no less as important or exciting. It's our life.
I've wanted time to freeze many times in my life. Pinch my eyes shut and stay in the moment forever. To step off the rollercoaster of good and bad, and live in the Hallmark commercial of the day. But if I had done this I would have missed the lifetime of moments that have followed. The lifetime of moments yet to come. The bad that allows me to throughly enjoy the good. My life may never be Hallmark worthy, but it's mine. I wouldn't have missed it for the world.