father

father: "Yet through it all I was broadly sympathetic to his situation. He had got himself into dilemmas he could not resolve. With no education and no social network to lend useful assistance (because of his tobacco habit he was not involved in the Church until late in his life when he would attend Sunday School to hear a particularly alert and sympathetic teacher, but he was never “against” it), and in a small, rather parochial town with limited opportunities to advance, he was simply stuck with making do with what came to hand. I have said before that he was “a peasant.” I mean no disrespect for him or peasants by that. He and they alike simply played the hand that was dealt them. But to his credit he learned over time that his children had to get educated to escape the traps he found himself in.

I cannot say that I learned much from Dad, certainly not about how to deal with family. That was all new territory for me in relation to my own family, and no doubt I made blunders in that regard as I explored the unknown territory of raising kids. But my father hung in there and did the best he could given the limitations under which he labored. I think there is a lesson for all of us in that."

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