Short Entry: Fathers and Sons
I had written an entry for Mother's Day; I was on the road for Father's Day, but seeing as my father's birthday was not too much longer afterwards (and given noone in my family reads this diary, anyway) it seemed perfectly alright to wait until today to write. :-)
I am probably one of the very few people I know, on the diaries or anywhere else, who is lucky enough to have had wonderful parents, and to maintain a virtually frictionless relationship with them. There simply are no major issues between my parents and I, which is an extrodinary gift and blessing. And so when they come over to my apartment (since they have the car and I don't, they come here instead of me going home) as they do every other weekend or soish, we just talk about whatever happens to come to mind, as we have for my entire life. It's a very comfortable thing.
In the course of those converations that happen every other week or soish, my father notes from time to time that he thinks I've accomplished more by my age than he did as a young man. I point out an entire raft of reasons why that observation is somewhat erroneous: I was born a free man in a free country, as opposed to his early life as a war refugee; I had opportunities he couldn't even dream of; advantages he and my mom were able to give to me that his own parents didn't have a hope of providing in Communist Revolution era China, and many other things, besides, which make comparisons between his life and mine unfair to make.
But most importantly, I point out to him that if you really want to look at the accomplishments that matter the most, by the time he was my age he had already married the extraordinary woman who became my mom. And by that measure, nothing I've ever done can compare to that. :-)
At Gauss's engineering graduation a few years ago. Happy Birthday, Dad. :-)