Wow! Did I ever miss it.
If any of you saw this coming down the pike back in January please let me know. I was listening to Hugh Hewitt every morning, and he and Senator Tom Cotton were talking about the virus while it was still in China. Still even then, I had no clue that our nation would shut down, or that people would be forced to cower in fear in their homes.
Here we are in the last week of May staring down a Memorial day holiday, unable to go where we would like to go. I'm not holding out much hope for Father's Day.
I have a project for all of you, and it will be one that even our 'non-fathers' can do. Yes, it is going to require you to do something instead of just 'thinking'.
I would like you to look back over the years and the many things you've heard your Dad say to you, and pick one thing he said that impacted you the most. It doesn't have to be spiritual, and it doesn't have to be something he made up himself. What I'm looking for is something that changed your outlook on life, or gave you a direction for your life that you live by today. It doesn't have to be tender, gushy, or any of that other stuff that we guys tend to get uncomfortable with, but it needs to be a moment when what your father said altered your life. To make it easy on you, Write it down! Take a little time and write down what he said, and how it changed you.
I'll start you off with my story and show you how easy it is.
Of all the advice, guidance, and rules to live by, my Dad was fairly simple. He wasn't talkative, and getting things from him usually involved delving into politics, women, or football. So, while I was a child at home my Dad offered the same advice I'm sure many of you received; Don't lie, don't steal, don't hit a woman, don't cuss in front of women, don't talk back to your Mom, DON'T talk back to him. The one thing my father told me that changed my life wasn't spiritual, but it set me up for success for the rest of my life after he said it to me.
I'd just been stationed at Mountain Home Idaho and I was 27 years old. Our car was having terrible problems and I didn't have the money to buy a new one. At the time I was driving 60 miles from Boise, Idaho to the base at Mountain Home. I was in college, had two kids, and living in an 8' x 24' travel trailer. It felt hopeless to me. I was drowning in fear, and I didn't have the skills to fix my car. In desperation I called my Dad, and told him what the car was doing. After listening to me for about twenty minutes on a collect call, he finally determined that I was having carburetor problems. "You're going to have to take it off and put in a repair kit." he said.
WHAT???!!!!
That was easy for him to say. He, and his Dad had worked on cars together since he was a little boy. I hadn't! I was a book nerd, a dreamer, and other things he wasn't.
"Dad," I said, "I don't think I can do it." I replied, remembering all the broken watches, and other things I'd disassembled without being able to put them back together.
"Dave, is it broke right now?" He asked.
"Yes, Sir." I answered.
"Is it gonna fix itself?"
"No."
"It's metal, Boy, somebody made it, and it can be fixed. If it can't be fixed, you can buy a new one. It's only metal, fix it."
In hindsight I know now he was just trying to get me off the phone because he was paying for the long distance call, but what he said changed my life. I know that's not very monumental, and isn't world changing, but for me it spoke volumes. I went to the local auto store, bought a carburetor rebuild kit, put it on while following the directions, and danced with glee when the car purred like a kitten.
From that moment on, nothing made of metal intimidated me. If it was broke, I couldn't break it any more than it was already broke. If I couldn't fix it, I could replace it. It was only metal. That confidence made me a successful Aircraft Repairman in the Air Force and changed my career. It also allowed me to keep our family going through many years of vehicles in various states of repair with very little money.
What you say to your children may seem to be hollow, and empty at the moment you say it, but I know from talking to many of you, that each of you have had moments when what your father said changed the course of your life.
Write it down. Take the time to put that memory on paper for the sake of your children, and their children. Let's be prepared to read them on our first Sunday back together.
As a Post Script, it is funny how things change as you get older. Whenever Dad needs a carburetor rebuilt, he buys a kit, and gives it to me; "I need you to do your magic, Boy. I can't rebuild carbs as good as you."
I smile while putting it in my truck, and say: "It's only metal, Dad, I'll fix it."
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