Savor life's moments

By Mike Morsch

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Be they big or small, I've always been a believer in experiencing and savoring life's moments when presented with those opportunities.

I was at the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa, in the late 1990s. I had a catch with my dad on that field, the same field where the movie was filmed. It was a special father-son moment and I've always been thankful that the baseball gods offered me that opportunity before my dad died.

Iowa has played an important role in my life. It's where I played baseball and earned a degree in journalism, at the University of Iowa. It's where I met the mother of my daughters, where I had my first job in newspapers.

The Iowa memories are mostly good ones. And once again, 30 years later and half the country away, Iowa has provided a backdrop to one of life's special moments.

Younger Daughter has started her senior year in high school and has been scouting potential colleges. Because she still has relatives on her mother's side who live in Iowa, the first school she visited last spring was the University of Iowa.

“Oh dad, I just love it. I don't need to look at any other schools,” she said to me over the phone at the time. I kind of felt the same way about the place when I first saw it in 1981.

But as a dad, part of my responsibility is to help her make informed decisions without exerting any undue pressure. She has since selected some other schools. They all sounded like Iowa to me.

But Younger Daughter never lived in Iowa; she was only 6 years old when we moved to Pennsylvania from Illinois.

Certainly I would be proud if she followed in my educational footsteps. But I worry because Iowa is not home anymore - it's a long way from home now.

Every week, Younger Daughter and I meet for dinner and last week was no exception. While we were talking, Younger Daughter was checking her phone for messages when all of a sudden her arms started flapping up and down. She shoved her phone in my direction.

“Does this mean what I think it means?” she shrieked.

I looked at the email. It read: “Congratulations, you have been accepted to the University of Iowa.”

I looked at her, she looked at me. We screamed and then we cried. It was so, so cool. Out of the blue, it had become one of life's really big little moments.

This is not the final decision yet. But as I looked at my baby girl and saw that joy in her face, I couldn't help think about that line from the “Field of Dreams” movie, the one that might now take on an even more significant personal meaning as we move forward with life: “Is this heaven?”

No, it's Iowa.

Mike Morsch is executive editor of Montgomery Newspapers, Fort Washington, Penn. Comments: msquared35@yahoo.com.