LZ GRANDERSON

My son was born during my last semester in college. His due date was Thanksgiving, but he didn't show up until finals week. I brought my books to the hospital and didn't think anything of it. That is what a father is supposed to do.

There is no way to physically always be there for your children and always be at the office and always be present for your significant other and then take care of yourself. The laws of physics necessitate that somebody or some thing is going to get the short end of the stick.

As a newspaper reporter, I covered and was around a fair number of crime scenes involving juvenile delinquents, and few things bothered me more than listening to their parents. Crying, ranting, proclaiming how great their children were despite being kicked out of school or previous run-ins with the law.

Insecurity is a natural part of human nature, and there are times we feel our stories are not worth telling, so we turn to the people we admire for strength. If we dress like someone everyone thinks is cool, perhaps we'll be seen as cool.

Teachers are not glorified babysitters with summers off. Their profession fuels all others, and on a normal day that is amazing enough in and of itself.

There is no shame in black athletes not wanting to be role models, but there should be shame when they don't behave like one. It's a free country and people can do whatever they want. But just because we can doesn't mean we should.

Sure, the job of high school teachers is not to tear down students' self-esteem. But it's certainly not to inflate students' sense of self-worth with a bunch of unearned compliments and half-truths.

Most remember the groundbreaking first in sports; few remember the third or fourth to follow in those tracks. That's not downplaying anyone's achievements but rather recognizing that there comes a time when simply being there is no longer good enough for the record books.

Accolades and lists may tell us about accomplishments, but life is meant to be experienced, not just accomplished. It's like the difference between reading books for the sake of reading and reading books just to get a good grade.

As a parent, I can empathize with how difficult raising children can be. There are challenges, especially within the framework of divorce, when parental guilt can sometimes blur what should be the best decision.

Just because we want our favorite team to win does not mean there's any lack of toughness when a player chooses family first.

My mother can certainly be rough around the edges at times, but she also taught me to have compassion for people who have been wronged. She taught me to empathize with those who have made mistakes.

The more time we invest imitating others, the less that's available to discover and be ourselves.

Women may think men have it all, but only because we've been socialized to express the emotions that are tied to this reality differently, which is to say, men are not to express the emotions that are tied to it.

I haven't dunked since Bill Clinton was in office, so I'm just happy for anyone who can do so without a trampoline.

Growing up, I didn't know anything about money other than we didn't have any.

Children may be born angels, but with all the temptations out there in the world, it takes work to try to keep them that way.

The ugly truth is it's the spineless parents who parade their undisciplined children around like royalty that make people dislike kids.

I don't begrudge a coach for trying to get all that he or she can. I don't resent a school feeling it needs to pay to keep top talent. I'm just afraid to think where all of this will end up because the overall impact seems to be stretching far beyond the scoreboard.

Of all the parts that make up my somewhat quirky life, there are few things that raise a stranger's eyebrows faster than discovering I love country music.

With technology and social media and citizen journalism, every rock that used to go unturned is now being flipped, lit and put on TV.

If children can't handle competition when it's necessary, or take some criticism, or never strive to be better because their parents inadvertently programmed them to believe they are already the best even when they're not, then they are in for some serious shocks and bumps down the road.

Instead of this fruitless debate about having it all, men and women should focus on what make us happy. Instead of comparing our lives with people we don't know who are making sacrifices we don't see, we should try to find the right balance between home and work life.

Heroes aren't supposed to do bad things. That's what villains are for. So either the good supersedes the bad, or the bad makes it impossible to remember the good. We don't like it when such duality exists in one person. We don't want to know our heroes are human.

The Dr. King holiday is not just for black people, African-Americans or people of African descent.