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Steppin' in Detroit: This is how we do it

Dear Dad...

October 6, 2011

Dear Dad,

I’m in Detroit now. You probably never dreamed I would end up here, huh :-) (Oh, this smiley face thing is a new thing on computers to show your smiling while typing).

So, your journey to the New World landed us in the great state of California, which probably should be our home, considering that the Distrito de California was the place that you left in Equatorial Guinea. But, your first born is here in the middle of America, doing fine, thanks to you.

Yesterday, Steve Jobs died. He was 56; the same age you were when you died. That irony didn’t escape me, you know. It really is very sad when people with such vision leave us well before anyone is ready.

I don’t think you met him, Jobs (at least you never told me you did). Either did I. But, I did get to know him through his product: The Apple 2 Macintosh computer at Marin Academy. I had a life changing experience at 14 that I didn’t even realize was happening.

Like you, Jobs was a person (from most all accounts) that believed in something greater than oneself. His faith was his guiding light. Were it not for his belief, his initial “failure” would have been the last we would have heard from him. But, because he believed, I’m sitting here writing you this letter (long overdue) on a machine that he helped make ubiquitous.

Your faith, Dad, is perhaps the most endearing and enduring quality that I observed of you as a son. For much of my experience with you in life, I chose to question you about your beliefs: political, religious, relationships, work-life.

As a teenager, I didn’t know that I was brain-damaged LOL (that means laughing out loud…I guess it supposed to replace punctuation like the exclamation point in the era of email, texting and cell phones - I’ll tell you about those things later). I mean, I guess you were trying to let me know that things would change and that I would eventually start figuring out that life wasn’t this cocoon of an existence, but a long journey of discovery.

I still remember very vividly when you came up to the school my sophomore year because I had been kicked off the team for poor grades. In retrospect, you could have just thrown in the towel, pulled me from school or even banned me from playing. But you didn’t. You talked with coach Ravani and worked out a study hall plan for me. I didn’t know it at the time, but you were being a supporting father. I thank you for that, Dad.

While, I’ve fallen short in many aspects of my life, I can say that all of my successes are due to you and what you poured into me throughout my life. Thanks for deciding to have me, raise and love me.

Anyway, I was reflecting on the news about Steve Jobs and it made me think about how you set a course for revolutionary change in our family (moving across the planet to start a life in a new land) and through many trials, you brought your vision to fruition: A successful brood of children. And despite the difficulty with mom and you, the fact that she has made her own life in America is a testament to your vision that it would, in the long run, be a good thing for a young woman of 24 to move to America and start a new life. I know she still keeps a lot of your keepsakes and memories of you. So, to my mind, your influence on her life remains overwhelmingly positive.

I’m not going to bore you with crazy details of my life or those of mom, Ben, Ivevu and Jose. I can save that for another letter and perhaps another conversation, when I see you in heaven. But I did want to thank YOU dad for being the visionary, the innovator, the grand planner of my existence as a man. You may not have founded Apple Computers, but you certainly are the co-founder (along with mom) of our lives.

I love you and miss you crazily.

Your son,

Alejandro

PS I'm typing this letter on a Mac. Pretty funny huh? :-)