The French have a proverb: “Bonne renommee vaut mieux que ceinture doree.”
Loosely translated the meaning is, “A good name is better than gold.”
Is there a better name, a better title, than ‘dad’?
I’m going through the arduous process of sorting through long-forgotten boxes in the basement of treasures my wife collected over the fifty years of our marriage, and I found this one of a grizzled, bewhiskered, old seafaring captain.
It’s my dad.
It looks like he’s thinking ‘whatever were you thinking?’ And if he were thinking about me at that moment, or in any of the many moments as I was growing up where that was probably what he was in fact thinking – then I have my dad to thank that he thought often about me.
And took action accordingly.
Like ‘this son needs scouting’ so my dad became my scoutmaster.
Or ‘this boy needs to play baseball’ so my dad became my coach.
Or ‘we need to go hiking and fishing and camping and boating’ because, after all, he was my dad and my dad thought that much about me.
And my dad loved my mom.
Dad showed me what commitment was, what a promise-made-is-a-promise-kept was, what tenderly caring for your wife was.
And so it was that his marriage to my mom for over a half-century, led to my marriage to my wife for over a half-century.
My dad will have been gone this coming March 18, his birthday, for twenty years.
My wife will have been gone this coming March 19, her homegoing, for one year.
Is there a better name, a more important title than ‘dad’?
The day after his dad died, popular speaker and writer Charles Swindol reflected on the treasures his father had given him as recorded in his book “Man to Man,” (pp.366, 367):
“Last night I realized I had him to thank for my deep love for America. And for knowing how to tenderly care for my wife. And for laughing at impossibilities. And for some of the habits I have picked up, like approaching people with a positive spirit rather than a negative one, staying with a task until it is finished, taking good care of my personal belongings, keeping my shoes shined, speaking up rather than mumbling, respecting authority, and standing alone (if necessary) in support of my personal convictions rather than giving in to more popular opinions. For these things I am deeply indebted to the man who raised me.”
Is there a better name, a more important title than ‘dad’?
No.
There is not.
