Daughters Are A Blessing

😊 The other day my daughter and I were involved in an uncomfortable telephone conversation, and she said to me, “Dad, you don’t know me very well†I thought for a moment and replied, “Only since you took your first breath.† She responds that she is trying to gracefully end this conversation, and I reply that I know exactly how to, and I lean forward and hit the button that stops the harangue.  I walk away fuming over our conversation and 30 minutes later she calls again and we talk as though the previous conversation never existed.  There was no trace of the bitterness we expressed those few minutes earlier.

I know how important I am to my daughter and my son.  They lost their mother in 2014, and they are fearful they will lose me.  I understand their feelings because I felt the same way when my father died, and only Mom was left. I have always felt that my daughter and I had a special bond and that feeling probably extends to all fathers with daughters.  When my son was young, we were involved in sports, cars, school, or something that involved physical activity.  With my daughter, it was more social than physical.  We sat and talked, mostly about her interaction with others.  Often it pertained to her current boyfriend, or her girlfriends.  She has always been a social butterfly, and I’m confident she will remain so.
My advice to dads that don’t have daughters; keep trying!  Daughters are a blessing from God.
“We’ve begun to raise daughters more like sons.  Few have the courage to raise our sons like our daughters…. Gloria Steinam

😊 “To the soul, there is hardly anything more healing than friendship.”…Thomas Moore
I believe that most of us will agree with that quote.  There are many times in my life that I needed a friend to sit by my side and listen to me express whatever frustration I was experiencing at the time.  Friends are like flowers, lending beauty and a delightful aroma.  I believe we discover that as children but lose that knowledge as we grow into adulthood.  Just like flowers, friends have to be cultivated, nourished, and given constant attention.  I’m sure you have heard the old refrain, “If you want a friend, be a friendâ€.  My wife and I strive to include our friends in our activities, and we find that in doing so, the activity becomes many times more enjoyable.  Some of our most treasured moments happen with people we hold dear. I have made friends on a tour bus, attending church, walking a trail and driving thru a neighborhood looking for a particular house.  There are limitless possibilities for finding and making new friendships, but you gotta be open to the need.  Try each day to speak to someone you do not know.  You’ll be surprised at how easy it is to make life more interesting.

😊 Glenda Jackson (81 years old, two-time Oscar winner and former British parliamentarian) was interviewed for Time Magazine and was asked: “Is there something you mourn about growing older?”  She replied, “It irritates me that I can’t cut my own toenails.”  Really, is that what bothers you?  I can list a lot of things that bother me as I grow older, but not being able to do that is not one of them.  I do believe I could come up with a more significant complaint.  Of course, we know that a Man’s biggest gripe would be losing his libido. For a woman, from my point of view, it would be losing some of her exterior beauty (the beauty that is within stays with her for all of life’s journey).
Glenda was asked, “How has theater changed since you left?”  She replied, “A theater is a theater, is a theater.  It’s a dark space which strangers fill, and you’re in the light.  Hopefully, something from the light goes into the dark, and the dark increases that and sends it back, and you create this perfect circle.”  What a wonderful way to describe the theater.

😊 A few days ago my wife and I sat down to watch the war movie “12 Strongâ€.  It was based on a true story and described America’s first response to the 9/11 tragedy.  As expected, it was filled with violence and within 10 minutes my wife was asleep.  She would be jolted awake occasionally by the noise blasting from the screen, but within a few minutes was cutting some more zzzzz’s.  Finally, she got up and headed for the kitchen to wash our dinner dishes (I would dry them after the movie was over).  I think that men need to see a war movie every so often, it seems to be the way we are built.  For some unknown reason, our DNA requires that we either participate in something violent or watch something violent.  Maybe, it’s testosterone driven, who knows, but something makes us fascinated with all things violent.  Sure, there are those of us that are not, but one thing for sure, we are certainly different then women.  American Football & boxing come to mind as violent sports belonging primarily to men.  I have pretty much concluded that without women the world would be less peaceful.  In countries where the female voice is suppressed there is unspeakable vehemence.
I remember as an 18-year-old, going through basic training for the US Air Force at Lackland AFB, in San Antonio, Texas, and being around only men for 7 weeks.  I was pulling KP one day, washing pots & Pans and taking the plates that were thrust to me by strong looking arms thru a hole in the wall.  Suddenly, without warning, through the hole came a woman’s arm, small, tender, with fingernails colored bright red.  A wonderful feeling swept over me.  This marvelous looking arm meant to me that civility was still present somewhere.  I knew that men would only be so violent if women were present.  They seem to instill restraint in men, to encourage their better nature to come front and center. Nevertheless, we men still need some violence in our life, and watching an occasional war movie does it for me. Don Marquis said, “Man cannot be uplifted; he must be seduced into virtue.â€

😊 The other day my wife and I went with our friends, Don & Louise, to eat dinner and attend a play afterwards.  After dinner we had some extra time before the play started, so we toured a nearby historic site. There was levity and chatter amongst old friends as we drove slowly thru the maze of old buildings, forts, and homes.  After about 30 minutes of touring, we headed for the theater to watch the play and arrived just in time.  After it was over and we were safely ensconced in the car, and before I started it up, I asked everyone to rate the play on a scale of one to five.  All three gave it a rating of 4+.  I gave it a rating of 3.  I could tell they were disappointed in my rating.  My reasoning was that each ticket cost $48 and at that price I expected much more than was presented.  If the tickets were $15, then I would have given it a score of four.  To put it another way, I don’t expect to pay $35,000 for a car that has the same features as that of a lower priced car.  I expect more because I paid more.  I believe that expectation is a driving force for life. I have always heard that if you don’t expect anything, guess what?  You probably won’t get anything.  So, yes, I expected more because I paid a considerable amount for that ticket.  Andre Godin said, “The quality of our expectations determines the quality of our action.† Yup!  I’m ridin’ that horse.

I hope that wherever you live on this wonderful planet, you are safe from harm, secure in a happy life, and that you have enjoyed the view from “My window on The Worldâ€.  If you get a chance, drop me a line.

“To send a letter is a good way to go somewhere without moving anything but your heart.†…Phyllis Theroux