Ode to Dad

This was great.  I also shared a joke with my Dad for Father's Day.  "Dad, when I grow up, I want to be just like you."  Proud, the father sat up straight, and asked, "And why is that?"  The son responded, "So that I can grow up to have a son just like me!"  What an accurate portrayal of my childhood dreams!

My dad is great, and quite honestly one of my greatest examples for what I have always wanted and strived to be.  He's been exemplar in the way he's treated my mother, the way he's treated us as his children, the way he's always worked as hard as he could to become better and more capable of taking care of his family, the way he's always tried his hardest to take good counsel and apply it into his life, and the way he's always shared his treats, even if he didn't want to (or didn't get upset that we "shared" his treats without asking . . . . ).

As a kid, I always noticed how my dad would kindly get my mother's door and hold it for her.  I thought that was cool, so I started trying to race him to it.  He didn't mind.  Really, he just wanted us to have the same level of respect and love for our mother that he has.  +1 for Dad.

Growing up, we loved to wrestle and play outside with Dad.  I'm sure he was always as tired as I often get now, but he patiently and lovingly took time to play with us.  It was always fun when I was working really hard on my footwork to make the high school soccer team, Dad would come out and we would play a lot of one-on-one in the backyard.  Instead of setting up little makeshift goals with nets, we would put a small orange cone at each end of the yard, and we would use those so as to build accuracy, too.  That was tricky, but we got really good at nailing those little guys.  We always celebrated hard either by getting down on all fours and heading the ball into the cone, or by pulling the bottom of our shirts up to our foreheads, running around in circles, and all the while shouting, "GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAALLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!"  We always pushed each other to do better, and I liked that.  We never went easy on each other.  #nomercy +1 for Dad.

When I was young, my Dad went through night school (felt like years) to earn his master's degree in human resources.  We never saw him, yet, he was always there for us.  I don't know how he pulled it off, but . . . . man!  What a guy!  Beyond furthering his education, he also showed me the value of hard work, and the ways it pays-off.  Because of his work-ethic, not only did I learn to work, but our family was always well taken care of, even in a time of unemployment, which was difficult, but he (along with my mother's unfailing help) made it work.  +1 for Dad.

One time, when I was probably around 13, I heard my Dad finish a conversation with who I thought to be his mom.  I thought I'd ask.  

"Dad, who was that?"

"Grammy.  She says, 'Hi.'"

"You didn't say, 'I love you.'  You always say, 'I love you', dad."

From that time on, he always did.  I'm glad he does.  I think it's important to tell the important people you love them.  Not your boss or the President of the United States or anyone like that.  Just your family and close friends.  It's important. +2 for Dad.

One of the treats we would often get when I was growing up was Creamies.  Yeah, good stuff!  Anyway, his favorites from the package we got were always the orange ones.  He didn't like to share them, especially since there were less of those than the chocolate or banana.  He never got angry or upset if we decided to eat one while he was at work.  One of my favorite treat memory is one night, my sister Sarah and I were up chatting just before bedtime.  Dad yelled at us from the living room and told us to get in there.  He sounded angry.  Nervously, we went in to where he was, sitting on the couch with Mom, suppressing laughter.  We instantly knew we weren't in trouble, but were curious what was going on.  Through his sly little smile, he asked us if we wanted to have some ice cream.  That was fun.  We stayed up for another hour just talking and goofing off and eating ice cream.  We can't forget the ice cream!  + a lot of points for Dad (and Mom).

He taught me to be happy, to get to know people, to love, to laugh, to slurp my jello, to be adventurous, to think selflessly about others, and to honor and follow God no matter the circumstances.  I hope to forever honor the man that he is by the man I become.

He didn't teach me how to curse or swear, spit (-1 from Dad-I got made fun of for this), or how to shoot a gun, but in the long run, I may well better off without it.

While I have an insurmountable number of awesome memories with my Dad, I only wanted to share a handful so that no one had to go on erroneously believing their dad was better than mine, but I wanted to make sure to prove my point well.  ;-)

Have a happy Father's Day, y'all!