Ravings of a Textual Deviant

Happy *coughcough*-th birthday to my dad, and thanks for timing it so conveniently!

Parents teach us a lot, and not always what they intend. For example, my dad started teaching me how to play chess when I was in preschool. One day, he took me into a game and hobby store to look at chess sets. He set me down on the counter, and while he was looking, the clerk brought out a knight from one of the expensive chess sets, held it out to me, and said, “See the horsie?” I looked right back at him and said “It’s a knight. It moves like an ‘L’.” And instead of reprimanding smartass little me, my dad laughed, and has told that story for nigh on thirty years…and that taught me that you can get away with an awful lot, if you’re funny when you do it.

Dad taught me how to cook…and how not to cook. He taught me to seek out and enjoy weird fruits and vegetables. He taught me to always label the food fridge and the lab fridge clearly and prominently. He taught me that “not all experiments are successful,” but that’s no reason not to experiment. He taught me more than I’ll probably ever need to know about patents. He never did manage to teach me how to balance equations for my chemistry class, but that probably had more to do with me than him. Dad taught me not to give up, even if you aren’t sure what the hell you’re doing; effort counts for a lot. He especially taught me not to give up on family—and that nobody drives you crazy like your parents. Dad has passed on to me choice bits of duct tape-fu, and taught me that a multitool is a beautiful thing. Dad taught me to scrounge, jury-rig, and substitute in order to get the job done. Dad taught me puns, jokes, pranks, and how to tell a good story.

Thanks, Dad.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 24th, 2005 at 10:14 pm and is filed under Life with Father. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.