Good Morning,
This last week especially, I have been reminded of my father and my father-in-law as I have been working on a design-build project that required both welding and lathe work.
My father, besides other trades, was a welder in his later years of gainful employment. He was a good one besides. He didn’t teach me to weld however as I believe he did not want me to follow that trade. So, whenever I do weld something, I find myself judging each weld much like I believe he would have. Am I still trying to please my father or is it just that I have a patterned expectation of quality? One of the things I remember about my father was the high standard he imposed on himself when he made something. It was always the best he could do with what he had. No compromises. I’m pretty sure some of that rubbed off on me.
It doesn’t matter who my father was; it matters who I remember he was.
~ Anne Sexton
This last week Jon Jr. and I moved the Craftsman Metal Lathe that was Jeanie’s fathers out of our garage and over the office shop area. I cleaned it up and used it to make some custom pieces for the same design-build project. Jeanie’s father, Jack was a Dentist by trade, but enjoyed the challenges of making things and working with his hands. As with many Dentists, and Jack was no exception, he was a perfectionist and enjoyed doing the absolute best he could when taking on a project. I liked that in him and related him to my own father in those ways.
There is something about placing your hand around or using a tool that another in your life has used and for just a moment, they are there with you, if only in spirit. I am compelled to respect the tool as they did, for while I may have inherited it with their passing, it still remains their tool in my mind. I wonder if my sons will feel the same in later years when they pick up one of my tools.
A father is a man who expects his children to be as good as he meant to be.
~ Carol Coats
Jon Jr. & Michael are now fathers and are discovering some of the things I have known now for 47 years. These are things that you must experience first-hand, as it is impossible to describe the feelings that touch your very soul and find roots there when it comes to being a father and especially with having a daughter. It is like a saying that I saw on the back of a “Biker’s shirt once, “If I have to explain, you wouldn’t understand.”
My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me.
~Jim Valvano
As I get older, I find myself enjoying those times watching my sons raise their children and to see a few of the lessons learned along the way, tempered with their own spin. I like what I see and I am proud of the fathers they have become.
“A wise son maketh a glad father.” — Proverbs 10:1
Having children and being a father is not for the faint-of-heart. It can be some of the most emotional and personally challenging things you may ever experience, but with it also come the greatest rewards as well. I consider myself blessed to have a father who taught me some of the best things I know, and to have the sons and daughters who call me Dad.
The greatest thing a FATHER can do to his children, is to love their mother.
~Anjaneth Garcia Untalan
Love, Dad
Oh yes, and one more thing:
What a dreadful thing it must be to have a dull father.
~ Mary Mapes Dodge