Sunday, June 19, 2011

Happy Father's Day: My Dad

Happy Father's Day to all you seeders and breeders.
I just wanted to share my thoughts and impressions of my own dad who is gone since 1979.
I'd say he was conflicted in many ways, but he was aware of the conflicts and understood what he was going through although he may have been at odds with himself on how to resolve his issues.
He was intelligent, independent and strong minded with a concept of fairness and honour. He admired pilots and sportsmen though he neither hunted nor flew. He could be very disciplinary but you always knew what the logic was behind the discipline...and it usually involved your well-being.
As a father and teacher i would liken him to Polonius of Hamlet:
"And these few precepts in thy memory
See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,

Nor any unproportioned thought his act.

Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.

Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,

Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;

But do not dull thy palm with entertainment

Of each new-hatch'd, unfledged comrade. Beware

Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in,

Bear't that the opposed may beware of thee.

Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;

Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.

Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,

But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy;

For the apparel oft proclaims the man,

And they in France of the best rank and station

Are of a most select and generous chief in that.

Neither a borrower nor a lender be;

For loan oft loses both itself and friend,

And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.

This above all: to thine ownself be true,

And it must follow, as the night the day,

Thou canst not then be false to any man."

I can almost imagine these words coming from him.
My most vivid memory of him? When he picked me up and hugged me, his face felt scratchy. :)

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