Father's Day

I love my Dad because he didn't kill me. Last time I saw him we were joking about my familial relationships growing up. We would all get in trouble as kids, but I was the child who was not smart enough to stop pushing my Pop. It was usually something like having to clean the house. For some reason, I would get bright ideas as a kid that the house had no reason to be cleaned. It was clean enough. I would then begin what I thought was a rational argument with my Dad so that he could see the right way...my way. This always led to me arguing too much and eventually having to clean the house by myself. I likened it to a cliff I was running for. My brother was at the edge waving me on...fueling the fire...like, "Yeah, come on Paul, keep saying Dad doesn't know what he's talking about" My sister, God bless her, was holding up the stop sign..."Please Paul....stop, stop..." It never failed, however. Every time I would get a running start and dive right off that cliff. Then I was like the manager of a baseball team after he's been ejected. Well... I'm cleaning the whole thing anyway I'm at least gonna say what I got to say. My brother would high five me as he walked upstairs. My sister would just look at me and shake her head.

The worst was family vacations. He would get tired of me arguing with him about something. He would say, "Paul, don't talk to me for the rest of the car ride." I would immediately continue the conversation beginning with "Mom, I got something I need to tell you and proceed to finish my side of the argument." I would hear, "Paul, I said don't talk" My response, " You said not to talk to you...I'm just conversing with my mother." Yeah, I would've killed me. Just said, "You know what, we've got another son and daughter...we can get by with 2." I'm thankful he didn't, haha.

I can still remember him teaching me to drive. I was 15 years old...I knew it all. We were driving one morning when he looked at me and said, "There's a big curve coming up." My response, "Yeah, I know." He says, "There's a big curve, you might wanna slow down." My response, "I know...I know...Ahhh, tires screech, car is turned sideways...we come to a stop in the middle of the road." I look over and his face his white, he's holding onto the handle and he just stares at me. I just smile and say, "Wow, that was a big curve."

He's told me many profound things over the years, but my favorite is that wisdom should come with age. I tell him every time I see him. "You were a lot smarter than I gave you credit for." I don't have kids but I do coach them. I've realized that you haven't tested your patience meter until you've dealt with a child. I have some kids that won't listen and won't do what I tell them. I think, "I'm smarter than you kid. You should listen to me kid, I'm trying to help you."...and then I start laughing because I see that same look that I used to give my Dad. I love the raw honesty. I know because I used to give my opinion freely. I've learned over time, sometimes it's best to just shut-up. I don't know what I'm talking about sometimes. It was the end of a game that we lost and I was a little upset about it. I'm talking to one of the players and I say, "So, what do you think?" He looks at me and says, "You ever wonder if sometimes we would be better off without a coach" I just laughed and said, "You think you know it all kid..."