Father's Day


There's a line in a song I heard several years ago that says, "All Things Work for Good has become my favorite verse". I thought about this during Father's Day week. After years of being distant my Dad and I have become close again. It started about three years ago as our daughters started attending the same college and our nests emptied simultaneously. It continued on with his urging me to take up guitar again. It solidified this past winter with the passing of his dad.
Suddenly each of us has graduated to a new role. I no longer have kids at home, and he's now the patriarch of the family. He has things he'd like to do but no longer feels up to it alone, and I find myself coming up to Kentucky more often to pick, fish, drop things off or help around his cabin. This past Father's Day week I arranged a guide on Percy Priest so he could fish for rock fish and stripes like he did during the two times he's lived in the Nashville during the 60's and 80's. He drove us all down to the Loveless Cafe for dinner the night before, then we visited until way later than we needed to. We pushed off from Elm Hill Marina at 3:45 a.m. and fished hard until 8:00, grabbed breakfast at the Stewart's Ferry Waffle House, and thoroughly enjoyed each other's company (despite having only two hours sleep!). He caught the most (10 to my 7) and I got the biggest one (15 lbs.). I would not have done this in a million years if he hadn't wanted to, and it was truly one of the best days of my life.
I'm sorry Dad didn't have his dad this year for Father's Day. I'm also sorry that his daughter was away at school for all but a few hours. But selfishly, all things truly have worked for good in that we had this time together. Its summer; if you're lucky enough to still have your dad, take him fishing (or whatever it is he likes to do). What you do isn't really the point anyway.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On-Line Streamlining

On Friday of this week I will shut down both my Facebook and Twitter accounts. In place of communicating via those outlets I intend to be a more consistent and diligent blogger. There are several reasons for this move which I will explain just briefly. I usually check all these accounts after dinner. That process entails checking Nelson email, personal email, Twitter updates (both reading and writing), looking at who added or dropped me on Twitter, checking Facebook updates from my "friends", and leaving comments. I could set up a link that combines Facebook and Twitter updates into one process, but that only saves a few moments of what takes about 45 - 60 minutes. My other personal interests, be they gardening or guitar or a few home improvement projects slated for the spring, suffer from the time taken up with living in the on-line world. Every so often my wife would like for me to just sit down and watch TV with her and I rarely ever do. After slacking off for the winte...
Read more

Employer Response to Feb 17 General Strike

If you are an employer and have employees participating in today's called General Strike here are a few tips.  The demands of the General Strike are not employment related: they are political and are not about to your workplace's specific terms and conditions of employment.  As such this is not subject to the "no strike" clause of your collective bargaining agreement (if you have one), and is not a non-union "wildcat strike".  As such it is not NLRB protected concerted activity in my opinion. You can take corrective action in accordance with your policies. But be careful: this "is" protected First Amendment speech so terminating for absences related to this event could prove problematic.  Still you probably don't want people walking off the job without consequences and/or disrupting your workplace. Here is what you can do.  Insist that the strikers leave your premises, not block your entrances and exits, and not disrupt your business. You c...
Read more

Managing Through the Micromanaging Myth

It is the ultimate derogatory comment among the 20-somethings in your workforce. It has replaced race and gender slurs as the lowest form of workplace insult. To be labeled a micro-manager carries with it a level of disdain somewhere just above sexual harasser. It is also largely a myth and an excuse wielded by some on your staff who lack the experience to know mentoring from meddling. That so many middle managers (and higher) buy into this corporate urban myth is disappointing; but it will one day go the way of all other ill-conceived management fads. Let me go out on a limb here and call out that labelling your supervisor as a micro-manager is a handy tool to escape supervision and accountability and that buying into it as a supervisor cheats your new hires out of needed coaching. The theory of the micro-manager is simple; close supervision is equal to a lack of confidence in the person you supervise and is therefore poor leadership. Moreover, if you've selected someone for your ...
Read more