Dear Dad,
Looking back over my life, I realize how much I learned from you.
You are the quietest man I have ever known, certainly the most stoic. You rarely explained what you were doing, often even when I asked questions. Even though we seldom talked much, I learned to follow your movement.
You possessed an uncanny ability to look at a problem and knew how to approach fixing it. It was labeled common sense back then; you were known as the neighbor who could fix just about anything.
I learned from you something I use every day.
I study the people around me: cashiers, salespeople, my doctors, the person fishing across the bank from me, our children, our grandchildren, the people who work with me, and, of course, Marcia.
To me, they are little encyclopedias of their own lives, collectively like Google. Perhaps this is why I majored in sociology.
The most important thing I learned from you is to observe and think. Not only to understand the people around me and the world I live in but also to gain a deeper understanding of myself.
Happy Father’s Day.