Father and Farther

 

“I knew my father had done the best he could, and I had no regrets about the way I’d turned out. Regrets about journey, maybe, but not the destination.”
― Nicholas Sparks

 

“My face keeps changing. There are times when I shave off my beard that I see my father looking back at me from the mirror, At other times I see my mother’s. Most of the time tho I see myself, an odd fusion of the two with much that is original. I find much the same happens with my perceptions of myself every time I use the razor of introspection”
— Randall Wolfe

 

Yesterday was my father’s eightieth birthday and my family threw him a surprise party with over one hundred and thirty people attending. My father is a rather amazing man who has helped many over the years in ways both large and small and has inspired many more.
A family friend is helping my father write a book about his life and his career and has been interviewing many who know and we had a few interview sessions together where I was asked many questions about my past and present with my dad. It felt pretty therapeutic and the give and take between the interviewer, dad and myself was pretty amazing as memories and emotions flowed freely. My sisters both said in their interviews that I of all of my father’s children am the most like him which I found surprising as a keynote for me was how different we are and how one of the qualities I admire the most in him was how he has given me the space and support to become myself and to learn who that is. My father is seen by many (including myself) as being a great man where I see myself as being content to be a good one. Still his values for much of my life was one yardstick (among many) for me that I would measure myself by and there are many ways in which we are similar. There is much there that I shall continue to consider.
Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

Succeeding  the PlanetSucceeding the Planet by G A Rosenberg

 

Travels Along the Dimensional MazeTravels Along the Multidimensional Maze by G A Rosenberg

 

Leave a Reply

%d bloggers like this: