Father's Day

My father passed away four years ago. As with all other fathers he has left a lasting mark on the way I see and understand the world around me. Most significantly is his holding in high esteem the pursuit of knowledge.

When I envision my Dad I see him coming home from he library with a bag full of books. Then each night seeing him read each one through while sitting in front of the TV. He read technical, historic and philosophic books of all kinds. When ever was there was a question, technical or trivial he had an answer. He was like a Google search before the Internet.

The radio station was always tuned to a news station long before talk radio. Newspapers and magazines abounded. Current events were a constant subject of discussion and he was conservative before conservative was cool. I caught myself any times echoing the words of my Dad while reading some bit of non sense on the Internet, "Am I the only one who sees how stupid Congress is?"

As most teenagers I became skeptical of the accuracy of his opinions. For several years I embarked on a pursuit to understand what I believed and determine the usefulness of the philosophy I held for addressing the issues of the day. The more deeply I delved the more I appreciated the insight of the "old man." The method I used was one I learned from his example. If I needed to know something I just found books on the subject and began to read. As time passed I found that my beliefs differed in most cases only by degree from those of my Dad. He demonstrated to me the tools used to ferret out the truth and I still use them today. I wish he had lived to blog because it is a forum he would have enjoyed thoroughly as I do.

To be a father is to be an influence both good and bad on one's children. An accurate predictor of the likelihood of children to attend church as adults is whether or not their father did so. Overwhelmingly it is the father's example that children follow when they become adults. It is unmistakably so with me. I often compare my decisions with what I think my father would do.

One of the great joys I have is answering the phone and finding one of the kids on the other end asking for my opinion on some subject. It was my father who led my to this place.


Father' Day