“I believe that what we become depends on what our fathers teach us at odd moments, when they aren’t trying to teach us. We are formed by little scraps of wisdom.”
~ Umberto Eco
Happy Sunday and Happy Father’s Day! And wow is it HAZY this morning! Thanks to Spencer for teaching me the secrets to manually focus our camera, as it was having a real tough time on auto focus. It almost looks like I’ve photographed the moon ?!?
As I sat this morning, I was thinking through my move yesterday. I’ll share some lessons tomorrow, because I’m not done sorting through it all, which means that I’m sure more lessons will appear.
To make room for my records, I had to clear out my parent’s lower storage unit. It is filled with the scraps of my early days in the VI on St. Croix, old appliances, some of Spencer’s excess boat things, along with more stuff that friends and family have left me over the years.
As I was sorting through all this stuff, I had a realization how much I am like my father. I was looking at some old digital clocks, and thought: “Now why in the world did he ship this down here, and why haven’t I been able to get rid of it sooner?” My mom has a tough time letting go of things because she attaches emotions and memories to things. Not Dad. It’s all about function. Like him, I am a methodical thinker. If something is functional, I have a hard time discarding it. I learned this from my father, not in anything he’s ever said, but in quiet moments over the years as I’ve helped him clean and organize the garage or his workbench in our basement.
Boy am I grateful for my friend Genie Lupo, who recently opened up a consignment shop. I now have a place to take all of these functional things. Things which I never really had a use for, but which have value. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure!
So in honor of my Dad, and all Dads out there, here’s some lovely Father’s Day Quotes.
And much love to you today Billy Bushwacker (that’s Spencer’s Dad) … Your love, sense of humor, and your blue desk filled with memories brighten up my world!
QUOTES FOR FATHER’S DAY:
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When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.
~ Mark Twain
MY Father… He was there when I didn’t understand, he was there when I was wrong, he was there when I cried, he was there when I lied. For some reason my dad was always there, when I needed him the most. His love was never ending. And now that he’s gone there is an emptiness in my world, but not in my heart.
~ Michael Jordan
I watched a small man with thick calluses on both hands work fifteen and sixteen hours a day. I saw him once literally bleed from the bottoms of his feet, a man who came here uneducated, alone, unable to speak the language, who taught me all I needed to know about faith and hard work by the simple eloquence of his example … I talk and talk and talk, and I haven’t taught people in 50 years what my father taught by example in one week.
~ Mario Cuomo
Life was a lot simpler when what we honored was father and mother rather than all major credit cards.
~ Robert Orben
My father always used to say that when you die, if you’ve got five real friends, then you’ve had a great life.
~ Lee Iacocca
When correcting a child, the goal is to apply light, not heat.
~ Woodrow Wilson
I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father’s protection.
~ Sigmund Freud
It is a wise father that knows his own child.
~ William Shakespeare
The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.
~ Unknown
Treat your parents with loving care, you will only know their value when you see their empty chair.
~ Unknown
Don’t hold your parents up to contempt. After all, you are their son, and it is just possible that you may take after them.
~ Evelyn Waugh
Fatherhood is pretending the present you love most is soap-on-a-rope.
~ Bill Cosby
