It’s mid-February 2024. In a desultory way‚ I am packing up and getting ready to leave Sandpoint‚ Idaho. I have spent the happiest days of my life here. Tommy and I and Tommy’s best friends here‚ Peter Feierabend and his son and daughter‚ played together‚ hiked together‚ were inseparable. READ MORE from Ben Stein: True Facts About America In Sandpoint‚ a father could leave his kids to play all day‚ tell them to return at dinner‚ and the kids would do it. Now‚ 25 years have passed. Tommy entered immortality on July 4‚ 2023. That horrible day‚ much of me died as well. So‚ Sandpoint has never been quite the same. I cannot tell you just what a gash losing your one and only son causes in your life. Many years ago when both my Pop and I worked together at the White House for the Peacemaker‚ Richard Nixon‚ I asked my father for an obscure statistic. “Please only do it if you have nothing more important to do this afternoon‚” I told Pop. He smiled at me and in one drag inhaled his Marlboro so deeply that he turned half of it to ash. “What do you think I have to do that’s more important than helping my one and only son?” he asked‚ and then he stood up from his brown leather chair and hugged me. I tried to follow that general principle with Tommy for all of his life. I follow it with my wife and my closest friends so far‚ and it’s been a pleasure. I followed it with my father and sat by his bedside at the Washington Hospital Center in 1999 for eight weeks until he expired‚ with my sister and I holding his hands and reading the Psalms to him. I try to do it with my glorious wifey every day. She is a Goddess‚ and if I don’t act upon that truth I am a fool to live. I often fail‚ and I am ashamed about it. Now‚ I am leaving the home where Tommy and I lived out so much of his childhood. I hurt all over keenly from that truth. I will never again be young. I will never again have a son young enough to hide behind a parked car at midnight and hurl snowballs at me. “Life goes by pretty quick. If you don’t slow down and look around‚ you might just miss it.” Ferris Bueller said that‚ and of course he was right. Now‚ I live a life of astonishing privilege. Part of that‚ a huge part‚ was having Tommy for 37 years. I’ll be leaving my home here soon. But how long before we meet again. I’m 79. There are not many rivers to cross and to watch my son leaping into Priest Lake‚ swimming under my boat for an adventure as a bubble monster. Life goes by pretty quick. I make prime rib eye for my wife every evening‚ and it’s a privilege. READ MORE from Ben Stein: Everything Is Leading to a Bigger War There Is Insanity — But There Is Also Love Why Are Republicans Ready to Abandon Freedom and Ukraine? Gaza: What Nixon Would Do The post Goodbye to Sandpoint appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.