Bill Belew has raised 2 bi-cultural kids, now 34 and 30. And he and his wife are now parenting a 3rd, Mia, who is 8.

Ultrarunning and Life’s Lessons

Daddy is teaching me that growing up is a marathon not a sprint.

He used to be an ultrarunner. He said it was not only many years ago, it was many pounds ago.

He said he learned some really important lessons. And now he wants to teach me.

I am pretty sure he can teach me but I am not sure I can learn.

Winston Churchill said something like that, “I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught.”

I laughed when daddy told me this nugget he remembers.

“If you can’t swim, you drown.”

Besides doing ultrarunning, daddy used to do triathlons, too.

In triathlons the athlete must swim, bike, then run.

Daddy says that the swimming part was the most boring. And even you train really hard and get faster it doesn’t make that much difference in the long run. But you still have to train to swim.

Because, if you can’t swim, you drown.

You can always peddle more slowly. You can always walk when you get tired of running.

But, if you can’t swim, you drown.

There are 3 things to do in a triathlon, not two. All of the basics in whatever you do must be at your service, not just 1 or 2 of them.

I guess this means if I have a job that requires me to be able to do 4 or 5 different things and I can only do 3 or 4 of them, then I am not the right person.

Hmm… I’d better take swimming lessons.

Talk to Bill and others about their experiences raising bi-cultural Japanese-American kids.