Hello Stephen,

I wanted to tell you about a special moment I shared with someone over some of your stories. First, I wanted to say I am the father of three wonderful children, two girls and a son.

My middle child, my younger daughter, is somewhat special. She suffers from bipolar disorder and ADD. We expect children to live in their own worlds, and often they do and it tends to be a happier place, away from the trivial concerns of adults such as bills and relationships and more towards the animated, blissfully ignorant concerns such as where their next sugary fix will come from.

For a child living with mental illness, their world is different. It is at best a bubble, that they can view the world from but still not be part of it, and at worst, a cold prison. Sometimes there are good days, usually there are bad days, in which her mood ranges from angry, to frightened, back to angry, to sad, angry again, and finally…to exhausted.

And as a parent, the process is exhausting as well. And frustrating. What do we want more than to see our child content and happy? Recently, we went on a camping trip, and my daughter rode along with me. Typically car rides rend to be very unpleasant, usually they include lots of fidgeting, outbursts, and demands for songs on the radio that I simply can’t conjure up. This time, on the way there, we experienced the usual boredom and frustration that there was nothing on the radio.

Then, I remembered that I had several episodes of the Tobolowsky files on my phone, so I asked her; do you want to listen to some stories? So we listened to the episode “the city of illusions” and the following episode, “night on mars” and as you talked about Bob, and the break in of your apartment, and the zoot suit, and the bathroom incident, my daughter sat there positively transfixed. We listened together, we laughed together, and I paused the show to explain what was going on and to give some insight on things such as “the difference between honesty and the truth”.

She liked it so much she asked me several times over the weekend if we were going to listen to more of “that Stephen guy” on the way home. And we did. And since then, I always make sure I have enough episodes of “that Stephen guy” loaded for every long car trip. So, I want to thank you for a very rare father daughter moment I was fortunate to share. And I look forward to many more.