Maybe the rules of magnetism apply to love so that as parents, we can pass on different skills to our children. Drex and I have our own habits and hobbies, our own well-defined niche in the family unit. For instance, I make sandwiches. Drex plays guitar.

We naturally introduce certain experiences, certain patterns and ways of being, into our household. Our daughters learn so much just by watching— picking up on the little nuances we aren’t trying to teach them.

They know that bread gets toasted, then placed on the cutting board side by side like two pages of an open book, then slathered with mayonnaise— then stacked with meat, cheese, tomato, and romaine lettuce— in that order.

When they build sandwiches, they follow this blueprint. There’s no reason the cheese can’t come first— except it doesn’t.

Sonya and Leena each have a ukulele. They angle them up like classical guitars. They practice fingerpicking just like Drex. He strums, they strum. He bars a chord, they press down on the necks of their ukuleles with their entire hand. He has a pick, they want a pick. He loves guitar, they love guitar.

While grateful for all the skills I do have, I still wish I had the ability to show the girls more things. Of course, there’s always family, friends, school, lessons, and YouTube to expose them to the breadth of human experience— and then, there’s always the opportunity to learn new things together.