A Day Late:

I am writing today instead of yesterday because on the weekends, my dad doesn't sit in front of his computer. Ever. Yesterday, he and his partner in crime, Jack the golden retriever (and mom of course, but the crime part makes her nervous), were probably taking boat rides or doing yard work or planning to knock out a wall in our house somewhere (that's been sort of a common happening in our house over the years). So, in honor of Father's Day, I'm writing today instead. I thought I was going to write about "what my dad has taught me" like I did for Mother's Day, but when I started thinking about it, I realized that all that dad taught me really fit under one category: curiosity.



Curiosity? That's what your dad taught you? He might even be thinking that... but the truth is, my dad taught me to see the world differently. For example, my car is making a noise. How do I handle this? Well, for one thing I don't just keep driving it. I better figure out WHY or WHAT is making that noise. I can proudly say that, thanks to my dad, most of the time, even if I don't know what's wrong, I can identify where the problem is. And that's the way he looks at the world... he sees something and asks why. Why does it work this way? What is it doing? How can I make it better? 

And this makes him one of the most creative people I know. One time, I had a school project, probably around second grade, and who knows what the project actually was, but somehow we created a "moving picture." Imagine a cardboard puppet theater, but where the hole was I had drawn different scenes that scrolled across the "screen." When I took it to school, I thought I was the coolest kid in school. (Actually, you know what, that day I know I was). And later, when I was a teenage, I got really sick of my room like girls always do, and somehow, we blew out a wall in my room so my bed could be in a nook surrounded by flowy curtains. I will never forget watching my dad (car-man, budweiser,  tools, etc)  hanging those sheer, dainty curtains from the ceiling. But these are only a few examples of the millions of ways he saw something and made it better.



So, as creative as my mom is, I know a huge part of the way I look at the world came from my dad. Forever I will look in a magazine or in Pottery Barn and say, "we can build that," or I'll have a problem and say, "We can fix that" simply because he told me I could. Thanks, Dad, for teaching me so much. I love you, and Happy Father's Day. Even a day late, thank God for the way a father made you who you are today.