Erick Erickson: Politics really don't matter when you have kids and are dying

I write this with multiple blood clots currently in my lungs. By the end of the day, I am tired and out of breath. My chest is tight. Thankfully, this go round is not fatal. But a year ago I was rushed into an ICU with my blood oxygen level steadily declining below 90 percent, and my lungs slowly suffocating me. And as nurses were sticking needles in my arms and pumping me full of fluids, doctors were calling my wife to tell her they thought she had lung cancer.

I have to tell you that American politics really don't matter when you have kids and are dying. You begin to seriously ask yourself what you want your kids to know if you’re gone. My kids, were they to learn about me from Google, would really only know what people who hate me think about me.

I have to tell you that American politics really does not matter when you have kids and are dying. You begin to seriously ask yourself what you want your kids to know if you’re gone.

I was far more worried about my kids’ relationship with God and their mother than about their politics or the political fight of the day. American politics today is such small ball gutter politics. The stakes are so small that the fights are all that matter. And I want my kids to have no part of that. Sure, there are fights that matter. But there are many more fights you think matter than actually do.

Having very nearly died, my priorities have taken more than a small shift in the last year. I’d rather be preaching than blogging. My faith is way more important to me, but my kids faith is way more important to me than my own. They are the priority.

So I set out to write them letters about the things I want them to know. I want them to know what I called David Souter and how it affected not just my life, but their mother’s. I want them to know about where I grew up and why I have raised them as I have. I even want them to know their favorite recipes.

These letters evolved into a book. It comes out this week. It is the things I would want my children to know if I should die before they wake: It's called "Before You Wake: Life Lessons from a Father to His Children."