Dad

Last week my dad came and spent a couple of days with me. It was just the two of us, except when Charlotte was there in the evening. He came to work with me, went to one of my "dinner talks" and hung out. While I was working, he was reading a book about the beginning of time: Adam, Eve, Seth, Cain, Able, and so forth. We talked a little about these things and I was surprised at his understanding. He's now almost 80 years old, but he's still working! He's running a MLM business and helping Frank remodel his kitchen. He's also in business with a friend on a new type of human resources business. He's busy. But I still noticed he's slowing down a little. We had a good time together.

Today I woke up with a song in my head, The Leader of the Band, by Dan Fogelberg. I heard it a lot when I started college at BYU in 1980 because my roommate had the album and listened to it frequently on his record player. While I was in the shower this morning it occurred to me that the song was about me and my dad, suddenly my eyes were opened to who I was and I started crying.

"The leader of the band is tired, and his eyes are growing old,

But his blood runs through my instruments and his song is in my soul,

My life has been a poor attempt to imitate the man

I'm just a living legacy to the Leader of the Band!"

I suddenly saw my dad as the leader of our little band of boys. He did the best he could with everything. He was a great man, a great father. He could do anything, we thought, and he instilled in us the same sense. He had faith, even when he didn't understand. He was persistent, never becoming discouraged, even through many difficult times. He just kept on plugging away at everything until he accomplished his goal. He loved his family. He loved his boys. He spent time with us, taking us Boy Scout and family trips.

 

I am amazed at how much my life has paralleled his. Family, marriage, problems, health issues, activities and so forth that I do or have are similar to what his has done. I have the same mannerisms, speech, and ideas -- in spite of how much I would like to believe otherwise. I tell the same jokes to my kids. I learned to build because he did. I have a song for everything anybody says -- and start singing it. I find myself saying the same things. I was a Boy Scout leader for my boys, and others.

I really have built upon the foundation provided by my dad. In my career I have written books and articles saying some of the same things my dad used to tell us when we were kids. For example, he would frequently tell us how sugar was "poison," as he would eat it. Of course, we laughed at his hypocrisy, adolescents are very aware of that. Recently I wrote an article on the internet explaining how sugar is the toxin that causes the most illness in the world -- and I still eat it (at times)! I took what he gave me, and ran with it. I took on his dreams, and improved on them. I took his ideas of success, and made them successful. "His song is in my soul!" I am what he wanted to be, in so many ways.

The Spirit of Elijah has wrought heavily on me, my heart is turned to my father. I have a new love for my dad. In the past I have seen him as so different from me, but now my eyes have been opened to the similarities that I couldn't see before. I always wanted to connect with him, and didn't think I could. On the one hand, I can now appreciate all that he has done for me. He gave me life. He raised me up. He trained me. But more than all of that, he gave me dreams, goals, and faith to move ahead, to go on, to improve on what he had done. My dreams are his dreams. I know who I am. "I am a living legacy to the leader of the band!"