Father,
let me take a moment to thank you. For thirty years (twenty-five of which I remember) you have been a role model, a hero and a paradigm of what an upstanding, intelligent, hard-working, patient man and father should be.
From teaching me to ride a bike (speed equals balance, you would say) to taking me out on a summer evening to practice fielding ground balls. Your diligence and patience with me are the things I remember most clearly.
In preschool you would pick me up and take me back to your office. I'd find all your pens and use them to create colorful drawings, wasting precious ink in the process. Yet, you encouraged me to write stories to go along with my drawings. Perhaps you saw, at that early of an age, where my passion would lay...
When I think about all the lessons I've learned from you, both explicit (how to tie a tie, how to iron my pants to maintain a crease) and implicit (watching you interact with Mother and learning how to treat a woman properly), I can't imagine you not being there to not only guide me but also be the end goal on my path.
However, you're not the end goal. As you once told me, it is my job to do better than you, to go farther and achieve more. Lofty aspirations, but not impossible.
I would count it a success to match you but I thank you for instilling in me the drive, determination and the unwillingness to settle.
So, happy birthday. And, again, thank you for everything.
let me take a moment to thank you. For thirty years (twenty-five of which I remember) you have been a role model, a hero and a paradigm of what an upstanding, intelligent, hard-working, patient man and father should be.
From teaching me to ride a bike (speed equals balance, you would say) to taking me out on a summer evening to practice fielding ground balls. Your diligence and patience with me are the things I remember most clearly.
In preschool you would pick me up and take me back to your office. I'd find all your pens and use them to create colorful drawings, wasting precious ink in the process. Yet, you encouraged me to write stories to go along with my drawings. Perhaps you saw, at that early of an age, where my passion would lay...
When I think about all the lessons I've learned from you, both explicit (how to tie a tie, how to iron my pants to maintain a crease) and implicit (watching you interact with Mother and learning how to treat a woman properly), I can't imagine you not being there to not only guide me but also be the end goal on my path.
However, you're not the end goal. As you once told me, it is my job to do better than you, to go farther and achieve more. Lofty aspirations, but not impossible.
I would count it a success to match you but I thank you for instilling in me the drive, determination and the unwillingness to settle.
So, happy birthday. And, again, thank you for everything.
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