Dad's Xmas Song - Video

In 2008 I wrote a Christmas song. My son Sam was a film student and wanted to video tape me doing the song. What neither of us figured on was my behavior when the camera started rolling. I should explain that I'm the sort of guy who hides the guitar whenever we had a party, afraid someone would ask me to play. And I'd run for cover whenever someone came at me with a camera. I thought I'd grown out of it. I hadn't.

When Sam gave me the signal that the camera was on, my fingers began to feel like sticks of marshmallow and I felt as though I were breaking out in hives. My blood pressure rose and I got very tense, but I didn't want to whine in front of my son about how I couldn't do it. This video was originally 32 minutes of me having one excrutiating hissy fit after another. Sam cut it down to seven minutes.

I share this now because, at the time, I wouldn't let Sam post it to Youtube or Facebook. I figure I owe him. Even at the risk of a little humiliation.

My son got himself a video neither of us expected. I can still hear him laughing. And for that alone I am forever grateful. He had such a great laugh. God, how I miss him. I hope he's still laughing.

The cover photo of Sam is from his semester with the New York Film Academy. It was a gift from the Make A Wish Foundation when he was sixteen years old. He was hooked on film from then on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=678TdZhRWhI