Denali National Park, July 23, 2012

We're outside Denali National Park this evening after a long day of exploration.

We travelled the Hutchinson Highway south to Paxson before coming west 130-plus miles to Cantwell across the "rugged" Denali Highway.

To be honest, we're kind of sighted out -- for the moment.

The bottom line is that this could be, dependent upon Waverly's activities next summer and beyond, the last major vacation that the two of us get to take together.

That time is priceless and is something that you don't get back.

"Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets." - Matthew 7:12

Tony Dungy wrote that "we often think about this verse in terms of being nice to others because we want them to treat us nicely", but he asked the question in regards to mentoring others.

He asked a couple of probing questions that I thought were interesting.

"How about honesty?" he wrote. "How about helping someone see where they need to improve by being candid and forthright about it -- rather than sugarcoating it or, worse, not pointing it out at all?"

In the news recently, we've seen the destructiveness of not pointing something out.

While I'm certainly not the perfect father, or mentor even, Waverly knows that I've never sugarcoated things with or for her. I've told her many times, and it isn't anything that is private and sharing out of school, that it is my job to tell it to her like it is.

Likewise, I'm honest with her when I discuss my dealings with others, regardless of whether I'm right or wrong. If she only hears from me when I think I'm right, she has nothing to go on in allowing herself to examine her actions and thoughts when she isn't.

I asked Waverly during our drive today across the Denali Highway if there was anything that she ever wanted to ask me, but that she was afraid to.

She didn't have anything, but I don't want her to be in a position one, five or 10 years down the road and think that she can't come to me with an issue.

And I also didn't want her to have questions about her Dad that she couldn't answer.

Plus I wanted to make sure that if I had one more test in "shooting straight" that I didn't fail.

These trips are more about what we see and the things that we do, but most about who we are and what we become from it.