‘We keep pushing forward’: The story behind Tim Anderson’s promise

One day his daughters will be ready for his story. They’ll be old enough. Wise enough. Courageous enough. The people they know and love, even those they only sense, will fit into their places. One day. Though, the truth is, Tim Anderson Jr. is still sorting through some of that himself.

He has time. They’re so young. He is, too, just 26. The story’s still gathering characters, scenery, meaning.

One day they’ll laugh and cry in all the places their dad laughed and cried, and they’ll understand why he is him, and then why he believes in them with all he has. They will be beautiful and strong and smart like their mother, and when their dad and mom teach them about beauty and strength and intelligence, those lessons will be about compassion and forgiveness, too. And loss. And loneliness. And dignity. And getting by, best they can. The mistakes people make simply because they are people, then maybe make them again, well, then other people decide to turn their backs or come closer.

See, just as right and wrong get blurry in the moment, so does judgment in the aftermath, in the years spent living with the consequences, in the decisions to love. Or not. That makes the man. That makes us all.