Imparting Wisdom
My father died on December 18, 2003, when I was 12-years-old. Granted, I was not able to know my father for a big portion of my life, yet I acquired much wisdom from this great man’s life and from what he had imparted to me. My father was a co-entrepreneur. He had a business he ran almost completely himself. His colleague who he went into the business with would usually only work from 10AM to 1PM. My father would get up in the mornings and leave at 6;30, working from then until 5PM. That’s 10-11 hours, five days a week.
When the business got into trouble, being in-debt, he would drink a lot. He wasn’t a drunk by any means, but because he worried over the business a lot, he’d drink. When he died, his demise was due to liver damage and kidney damage. However, liver damage turned out to be hereditary. His mother AND father died from it, his brother died in the 1970s due to it, and one of his brothers — who’s living today — passed away from it.
What he taught me was indelible, however. He was a man of God; he advocated kindness, respect, self-respect, generosity, and hard work. He would often tell me that nobody gets truly anywhere in life without working hard. He valued education. He was a math whiz. But the one thing that stands out the most that he taught me — besides working hard — was to never drink. The years before he died, he told me to stay away — COMPLETELY — from drugs and alcohol. And I’ve did that — because of my father’s wisdom, I’ve made a vow to myself, and posthumously to him, that I will never consume any drugs or alcohol.
Every day he would tell my mother and I that he loved us. He appreciated us more than many appreciate their families. During the last few months of his life, when he was sick (and none of us knew how sick, not even him), he would will himself out of bed to play a few games of the video game Madden NFL with me.
In November 2001, my father and I was going to a pro wrestling show. We had two extra tickets, and my Dad was going to sell them. While there were many people selling tickets, my Dad passed up on several opportunities. While looking around, he spotted a man and his son. My father walked up to them and asked, “Need tickets?” and handed them over the two extra tickets at no charge.
During Christmas 2001, I was sick with a cold. So on Christmas Eve, while I was lying asleep (this was at around 8:30/9:00 at night), starting to wake up, my Dad said, “Go ahead and open your XBOX.” I did, and we played the video game NFL Fever. This was significant because he was spontaneous in his actions, and while I was sick, he made me feel better by giving me a pleasant surprise.
One day, in November 2003 (a month before he passed), it was freezing cold, snowing. We were in the Wal-Mart parking lot getting ready to leave when we seen a family in their van about 25 feet away from us. People were walking by them, staring at them. Their van had broken down. And while others were walking by, staring at the people who were in anything but an unfortunate situation, my Dad got out of the van, and stood in the freezing cold while helping the people get their car started.
[This is going to show up on http://ForBetterLife.org pretty soon.]
Tags: Dads, December 18, December 2003, Father's Day, Fathers, Generosity, Hard Work, Helping, Tim Russert, Wisdom, Wisdom of our Fathers
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