Dad

It’s about 8:15am. The phone rings. It’s Junior calling his dad. The first floor of the house is constructed so that you do not have to eavesdrop. You can hear the conversation. They are talking about the cord of wood that was dropped off at the house for the winter. Junior is in some preparatory phase of the start of his work but they talk for 15-20 good minutes.

At 9:00am the phone rings. It is daughter Number 4. She is also calling Dad. They talk about Church. She is the pastor and he is the proud deacon. This telephoning pattern where the calls range from a car that wrecked on the freeway to the new constellation that scientists discovered repeats itself at least 8 more times with a few repeat calls from the children, grands and friends. Some of the calls are replaced by visits. The grands seem to prefer visits either after work or during work breaks. They are all calling, “Dad”. The man behind this reserved persona called, “Dad”, does not encourage tyem to call. They just call, and they do it everyday. I call it a commanding personality because it draws people to itself and the question is, “Why?”
Dad will make one visit my area of the world and meet some of my acquaintences one time and for the next 10 years they will consistently, “How is your father-in-law?” To be truthful, it also happens similarly with Mom. But what is it with these calls? The callers are too old to be rewarded with candy and no money changes hands and they are clearly not calling out of obligation. You get the idea that they want to call. Something about the connection helps keep the callers grounded. I know that I sound like Dale Carnegie, but what is it about this kind of personality that wins friends and draws people? They did not have to take the course. They were borne with it and I think I know what it is about this personality that draws the calls. Hmmm! I lik that phrase, “draws the calls”. It has a kind of ring and rhyme to it and I think I know what it is. It is “Interest”. Dad is genuinely interested in your life. He is interested in what you are interested in especially if it is good. He genuinely wants to know about your work and how you do it and what it is suppose to accomplish. If there was an accident on the freeway and you tell him what you saw, he wants to know what you saw and why it happened. He is interested in you and your life and it draws people like flies.
It also helps that this interested come from a personality that is grounded, meaning, he is — or shall I say, “They, he and his wife, are in touch with what is real about life and when we connect with them they ground us.” I my home state in the 50s every house had a lightening rod attached to it so when the lightening came close to the house, the lightening rod caught the electricity and channeled it to the ground and disappeared into the dirt without harming the house. We come to Dad and Mom with all kinds of electricity, energy, emotions, and anxieties crisscrossing through our brains both positive and negative, and they listen to us and ground us and makes us feel alright. It gives us assurances and causes us to gain perspective so that we become gruonded. Maybe that’s it.
Anyway, let me cut this thought for the day because I need to make a call.