a day about dads

So first, the Dad around here...he is awesome. Libby has him wrapped around her sweet little finger as every dad of a little girl should be. I always feel sad for him that work keeps him out of the house so much, but when he is here, he is here. We all know that there is no place he'd rather be than with us. Jer tells the best stories, not from a book, takes the kids on walks in the woods, plays baseball, football, or soccer in the basement, wrestles, carries sleeping kids up to bed, cooks, even grocery shops with all three kids while I'm at work. He says he gets a lot of looks, and people say things like, "you've got your hands full." But the lady in line behind him at Aldi today said it best, "better full than empty."

Pardon the quality on some of these old photos.

There's my dad. Surrounded.
My dad and I have this little song we always sing to each other...especially funny because we have the worst two singing voices in the family. I just recently came up to visit my parents and they had the camper set up out on the street. I slept out there with the kids, just like my dad used to do with us. He was always willing to do that sort of thing. He'd get up and run out to the grocery store before anyone else was up if he noticed that we were about to run out of milk. We all knew he would do anything for us.

My dad is a genuinely nice person. He treats people kindly and is gentle with the feelings of others. He doesn't think or say unkind things (except maybe about Chad Henne).

I love this pic more now that I have kids. I can't imagine it. Being handed babies number 4 and 5. (My youngest brother and sister who are twins.) Knowing now how much work one baby is and knowing now what it is like to have three kids, I look at my Dad in this pic, and I wonder if he was worried about how he could handle it. Was he nervous? Did he worry about whether or not he'd do a good job? Then I see that smile, and I know that he wasn't frightened of the new situation or the challenge. He'd just do the best he knew how. He always has. He ALWAYS gives each of us his very best.

A more recent pic, but going further back in my family to my Mom's Dad. My Papa. Here he is holding Libby. My Papa is a genius in aerospace engineering. He makes us all so proud. His academic success is inspiring to everyone who knows him. The image I will forever hold of my Papa is him bent over the table with a device opened up in pieces (maybe a radio or VCR or toaster). His glasses are off, maybe there is some persperation on his nose, and he is going to figure it out. The same device will be back together and ready to work for us again shortly. My papa has always been interested in figuring out how things work. He's also a super card player. I remember him teaching us blackjack strategy when I was really little, and we still have really lively card games whenever they're in town.

This is my Pap-pap holding me. I never really knew him very well. He had alzheimer's disease and passed away when I was in middle school. But I know he was loved very much by his wife and sons, and they all did right by him for the many years that he was sick. I hope that one day I will have the oportunity to know him well, and I know that my little brother has his smile.

This is Jer and his dad. His dad is teaching him to drive in a nail. I think he has taught the same skill to Luca. One attribute of Jer's dad that I really appreciate and that I believe Jer has inherited from him is a natural sense of curiosity. If you're interested in something, be it woodworking, poetry, hebrew, vegetarian cooking, photography, writing a novel, whatever. He'll just read about it and try it. This also applies to things he may not want to be interested in, but has to be, like plumbing, tiling, installing cabinetry, etc. If there's a book out there about it, he can do it. Why not? He also has his own language that everyone in the family has to become fluent in. You can't stand there clueless when someone asks you to help move the "witch doctor" (dishwasher) or when you're asked to pick up some "important paper" (toilet paper).

This is Jer with his mom's dad. I don't know much about him, except that he had a chicken farm and a grandfather clock that now sits in the parlor at Jer's parents house. (We have to turn off the chime when we sleep in there.) Jer tells me he was very financially conservative, and would save all the money he needed to buy a car before he bought one. Jer is like that too.

I think we are lots of little pieces of the people that came before us. Maybe you inherit someone's eyes, or temper, or sense of humor. I'm grateful for all of them. I'm grateful for the things they pass on to us, some in our genes, but much more in their examples and the patterns of their lives.

I'm grateful to live according to the traditions of our fathers.