ibn Daoud

Happy Birthday

2008-02-05T18:00:00.000-08:00

Dear Malik:

Happy Birthday! I've been thinking of you a lot lately, wondering how you have been doing. I don't know if you celebrate birthdays, since the last time you visited you talked a lot about Jehovah and being a Jehovah's Witness. While I do not support this religious tradition myself, if that is something you have embraced I still love you as my son.

My father, David O. Kling Sr., would have had a birthday in about a week. February seems like a good month to be born!

Love;

Dad

New Year

2008-01-06T03:03:00.000-08:00

Dear Malik:

Happy New Year!

Tomorrow I head back to school at Wright State after having been on break for about two months! I'm so looking forward to getting back to school, I have two quarters left and then I graduate. But I'm going to going to another school in the Fall, graduate school to work on a Masters program. I'm looking forward to that too!

I've been wondering how you have been doing. I think about you frequently.

I just finished reading a novel called "The Road," by Cormac McCarthy. The book was very good, but it was depressing. It takes place in a post-apocalyptic world with a father and son heading south down a road looking for warmer climate. The world is desolate, and they have to be careful because of people they encounter. They have trouble with the weather, finding food, dealing with sickness, etc... The story has somewhat of a happy ending, but also a sad one. Well worth the read, but be prepared for an emotional roller coaster! Last night I started reading the "His Dark Materials" trilogy by Philip Pullman, its the series that the movie "The Golden Compass" was based upon. I'm only a few pages into it, but I liked the movie and could just sense that the book would be great.

Thinking of you often!

Love;

Dad

Daylight Savings time and Harry Potter

2007-11-06T16:37:00.000-08:00

Dear Malik:

With the season of Autumn comes setting the clock back an hour for daylight savings time. I'm not a big fan of this because I'm not much of a night person. So here it is about 7:30 PM, fairly early in the evening, and I'm tired and ready for bed! It seems that once the sun goes down, I start getting tired. I'll go to sleep, and might wake up at 1:00 AM or so and be fine. Its just the initial appearance of darkness that starts putting me to sleep. I have always had a difficult time working night shift at any job I've had.

Not sure if you have read the Harry Potter books, or seen the movies. I've read all the books and like them a lot. The movies are OK, but the books are much better. I mention this because I'm trying to read the first Harry Potter book in German. I don't know German very well, but I've managed to get through the first paragraph of the first Potter book in German. Not a very good start. Hopefully it will go quicker as I get more vocabulary down.

Well, that is all I have for now. I was thinking of you.

Love;

Dad

School, Kelsey, and stuff

2007-10-03T18:19:00.001-07:00

Dear Malik:

This past Saturday Toby and I along with Toby's family went to the Ohio Renaissance Festival. We saw some show, had some over-priced food, and had a good time. We couldn't really afford to spend much money, but I got Toby a few early birthday presents. We also celebrated Kelsey's birthday, she turned 16. Do you remember Kelsey? You spent a lot of time playing with her when you visited several years ago.

I hope school is going well for you! I'm doing good this quarter, although I dropped German 201 because I simply wasn't prepared for the higher level German. I got a German tutor who is helping me with my ability to read German and I'll take German 201 in the Winter Quarter. I need 201 and 202 to graduate.

All is well here. I hope all is well for you too!

Love;

Dad

Back to School...

2007-09-05T16:37:00.000-07:00

Dear Malik:

I started back with school a few days ago, at Wright State University. I'm taking a Geology class, second year German, Studies in Ethics, and Existentialism. The German might give me some challenge because I don't learn languages very well. But I think the other classes will be fine.

I have good news! I got accepted into graduate school, Methodist Theological School in Ohio. I'm really excited about this and assuming I graduate from Wright State next year as planned I'll be starting graduate school next Fall (in 2008). I really like school. It is a lot of work, but very much worth it!

Love;

Your Dad

Grandmother's Birthday

2007-08-23T07:01:00.000-07:00

Dear Malik:

Today is the birthday of your grandmother, Cheryl D. Kling. It is her 59th birthday and I'm going to meet her at her work and take her out to lunch. I don't know if you celebrate birthdays. That last I knew you were being raised as a Jehovah's Witness and I know they do not believe in the celebration of birthdays. I never understood why it was acceptable to celebrate anniversaries but not birthdays since a birthday is essentially the anniversary of a person's birth.

I hope you are doing well!

Love:

Dad

School

2007-08-22T12:13:00.000-07:00

Dear Malik:

I suspect you are about to start a new school year soon, or you have already started. I too am in school. I'm a senior at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio and I've been at Wright State University for a few years now. I really enjoy going to school and learning new things and meeting different people. I've developed a good relationship with many of the teachers I've taken and I enjoy the rapport generated from these relationships.

In college and university you select a major, which is your field of study. I'm majoring in Religious Studies and Philosophy and I like both of these subjects very much. I should graduate from Wright State in the Spring of 2008. I'm currently applying to graduate school. Graduate school is like a college or university but you don't start attending graduate school until you have graduated from a college or university with a bachelors degree. When I graduate from Wright State I should have two bachelors degrees. The graduate school I am applying to is Methodist Theological School in Ohio and it is located in Delaware, Ohio. I've visited there several times and I really like the school, and think it will be a good fit for me.

I often wonder how you like school and what subjects are your favorites. I also wonder if you are involved in activities at school. I wasn't very good at sports but when I was in High School I became involved in student government. I hope you do well this academic year!

Love:

Dad

Why this blog?

2007-08-21T19:03:00.000-07:00

Dear Malik:

I created this blog because I wanted a way to communicate with you; a record of my attempt to express to you my thoughts and emotions. My father and I were not very close when I was growing up, a real tragedy. Now that my father has passed away I find myself thinking of him often and wishing I could have come to know him better than I did. While his health was deteriorating we tried to cultivate a new relationship, but it was the poor health that caught up to us and he died August 8th 2004. I wish you could have been at the funeral. I conducted the ceremony and it was beneficial in my mourning process.

It is also a tragedy the circumstances that lead to the divorce between your mother and I, and even more so the estrangement of you and I. I do not see you not because there is not a desire there. I want nothing else than to see you all the time, to get to know who you are and what you are interested in and to be a parent and a father. You mother and I cannot seem to get along well enough to help facilitate reasonable conditions for me to be in your life. I don't want this blog to become a vehicle for me to bad mouth your mother -- that is not its focus. However, I will say that I hope in the future she makes a change of heart and I can see you again.

I have been wanting to create a blog like this for a couple of years now. But it was been so difficult grappling with the feelings I have. It seems so foreign to me that a father cannot see his son! Hopefully, one day we will be good friends. That is my hope.

Love;

Dad