Posted By AmyD. on June 21, 2009

My dad looks at me now and tells me how proud he is of me. He also acknowledges that he and I are a great deal alike. We want instant resolutions, we don’t like loose ends, and we can be incredibly impatient.

My dad advises me to pick my battles and choose better times to address them. He does this, not while looking down his nose or criticizing, but with the look of someone who understands that for our personality types that can be a hard lesson to learn.

Of my parents, my father was the more quiet one. Yet years (and years) later I’ve realized that many of my core beliefs are his; live and let live, judge not, and tolerance. He didn’t instill those beliefs through preaching or lectures (not that I didn’t get lectures!) but through example.

My dad is methodical and analytical. He doesn’t make hasty decisions. Yet he thinks quickly on his feet. When I was learning to drive he taught me to know my route ahead of time so I could anticipate lane changes and turns at least a block ahead of time, usually more.

I admire my dad’s energy, his ability to break a situation down and see it for what it really is, and that he’s pretty mellow. That last part gives me hope for myself. I don’t think anyone would describe me as mellow now.

The other day one of Ethan’s friends asked my dad if all the silver hair bothered him. My dad, who started going gray in his late thirties, replied, “I don’t mind it, but I do mind what it represents. It represents age…” He was also quick to add that having two daughters didn’t help!

“What it represents…” Big picture, details, my dad has the ability to zoom out and zoom in while others might only be able to see one or the other.

My dad has devoted hours upon hours to charity causes like Relay For Life. He was head of logistics for years right up to the year that our local event raised over a million dollars. If you asked him why he does it he wouldn’t tell you about losing his father to lung cancer when he was only 20, or his sister-in-law who died of breast cancer, or even his own cancer scare; the very first reason would be that he has fun doing it.

He also has fun dragging his daughters along for the ride.

The big barbecue competition recently? Was for the Children’s Miracle Network. My dad was a committee chair, he was at the event starting very, very early Friday morning until late Friday night. He skipped breakfast with family on Saturday morning to be back out at the event before anyone else – minus the barbecue teams, of course! The man is a freakin’ energizer bunny.

And through the entire event he happily ran over to our area to see Maggie or to taste something before it went out to be judged. It’s one thing to do everything well, but it’s another to always do it with a smile on your face and I don’t recall seeing my dad not having a good time.

My dad introduced me to cartoons. I remember watching them with him. Although, I’ve been told that when I was an infant you would find me in my bouncy seat early Saturday mornings watching cartoons with dad right next to me.

Later on my girlfriends and I would insist on watching a scary movie, but we’d make sure that dad was there with us because he’d make corny jokes at all the really scary parts. It made it less scary!

Years later, I find myself often curled up with a kid or two or three watching cartoons and forgetting about all the other stuff that isn’t nearly as important as just hanging out with my kids. Sometimes, I even make corny jokes during scary movies.

Just like my dad did with me.

(I like that picture, btw, he doesn’t he thinks it looks like we are “out of it.” I think it looks like we are having a good time. We were well into a few beers at Prime Cut for my birthday earlier this year.)

Happy Father’s Day, Dad!

Categories: Holidays, Personally
Tags: cartoons, dad, family, father's day, having a good time