Blog 826 – 11.26.2017

My Father

My father was not a perfect man but he was the perfect father for me. Some people believe that we pick the people like a casting director to play the important roles in our lives, even the walk-ons. My dad was no-walk on but a very important player in the story of my life. I recently watched again the great film classic, A Tree Grows In Brooklyn. The dad in that story as my own dad had a bit of a problem with “the drink” but also like the loving father portrayed in that wonderful movie he loved his children and never met a stranger but gave to each and all “the best he had to offer” his sense of humor and his wonderful take on life.

There was an inspirational hit song in the seventies called “Teach Your Children Well.” It said, “Feed them on your dreams – the one they pick’s the one you’ll know by…” We cannot force a child to follow a particular dream. All too often parents try to relive their own unfulfilled dreams through their children. It doesn’t work that way. They get to pick the dream they will follow. I love Judy Collins’ song, My Father. I share it here. I have changed a few words to make it my own. I hope it touches your heart as it has mine:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Oqrvu0BTqB6Hi-SE-2NRbaUiFlRUxN_t

This wonderful song and my attempt to sing it are my tribute to my father and all the wonderful fathers that I have known and of in my life James, Buddy, Tommy Jim, Roy, Wallace and hundreds of others. I hope that my own children see in me more the father I wanted to be than my faults and failings. Mother’s love gets a lot of tributes, all and more deserved, I loved my own mother to distraction, but I also loved my father and always will.

My father’s love and dreams helped point me to our true Mother/Father whose promises are always true and who moves us to make our own dreams come true.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

In tribute to My Father,

David White