and Gushy About His Dad
July 7, 2010
By: Danny Thomas
The beginning of this week I took the girls on a last trip to the ocean before we move to the midwest.
Some good friends came down to Eugene for a visit on their way out to the ocean, and we tagged along!
Partly, because of my soon-to-be distance from it, and partly because I’m afraid after this year, the ocean will never be the same, I’m feeling sentimental about my favorite ocean.
The ocean is perspective.
It is everything in proportion. It is macro. Meta-life…
Our trip was great – good company, nice digs.
I am still learning what it means to be a parent on vacation, tho…
I had a beautiful drive home – the kids slept for a good portion of it, and I was absorbed by the road, the scenery, and by Paul Desmond’s tone.
As I listened to The Dave Brubeck Quartet play Balcony Rock, the breathing of my sleeping kids echoing the tide an audible souvenir of ocean waves, with Father’s Day still in my head, I started thinking about my own dad.
I got home and started writing this, and while it may seem like a personal letter, I consider it to be a public declaration.
I drove home from the ocean I listening to The Dave Brubeck Quartet. I consider them masters of their craft.
I have a deep appreciation for Paul Desmond, I feel enriched by listening to his playing.
I feel enlivened by the fact that this belief is part of my identity.
I feel that my appreciation for his playing, his tone, his style, that of the entire Quartet for that matter, deepens and contributes to my appreciation of music in general, of melody… the Brubeck Quartet plays music that transcends. I know this so deeply that it seems encoded in my DNA, and I am glad – it feels right, as if somehow this knowledge and predilection is an indication of alignment, of something being or at least having the potential to be in harmony in my soul…
Dad, I think I’ve got to hold you accountable for this. In among all the many pearly bits of wisdom you have endowed me with, practical, poetic, cultural, and scientific, is this gem – The Dave Brubeck Quartet is definitive, all-time.
I hope I can enrich and enliven my daughter’s lives in as magnificent a way.
But I’ve told you that before.
You and Mom made my ears, and helped me learn how to listen and that is a gift I treasure above many things…
More than that, you inspired me to be a father. The tenuous relationship you had with your father was not a deterrent, in fact it moved you to do better, to overcome your environment and become a father that I am grateful for!
But I’ve told you that before.
Some things I may not have told you before;
I want to honor you with my life and my family.
I respect you.
I want to be like you.
I admire you and am inspired by you.
I wish I got to be around you more.
I believe in you.
I think you’re a great dad.
I love you,
But I have told you that a million times.
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chills
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