Wednesday, February 6, 2013

My Dad can beat up your Dad.

RLB post.

I had a meeting with a case worker today. I have a severe back injury caused by my service in the military. In case you hadn't heard, suicides in the military are responsible for more deaths than the war in Afghanistan right now. The military is trying desperately to quell this trend.

Psychologists and social workers are being hired like crazy. That won't help. My case worker asked about my life, trying to figure out if I'm a risk. I'm not. I have support from my close and extended family. I find myself helping more vets and servicemen than needing help. The biggest reason for this is my Dad.

My Dad is the farmer that Paul Harvey was talking about in that Dodge commercial on the Super Bowl. He's also a man that has lived with chronic pain for forty years of his life and continued to press on. He has set the example of the man that men are supposed to be. He didn't divorce...he never thought about it. He raised a family. He worked hard his entire life. He never took handouts. It would have been embarrassing to have his kids get free lunch. He and his kind built this wonderful country we have. It wasn't the victims that built our country. It wasn't the complainers or critics. It was men with strong backs and strong Biblical views on life.

This country will fall. Sooner or later. It's men like him that will rebuild. It's him that I strive to emulate and it's him that I want our descendents to know is the goal.

8 comments:

  1. That was a great commercial. That is the type of man I desire to become... work in progress.

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  2. You were blessed with an amazing father. Now it is our job to raise sons like him...

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  3. I liked that commercial, but there aren't many farmers like that anymore.

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  4. "My Dad is the farmer that Paul Harvey was talking about [...] He worked hard his entire life [...] He and his kind built this wonderful country [...] It was men with strong backs and strong Biblical views on life."

    Yeah, they set the bar pretty high. I'm grateful for several of these men in the family tree. They keep urging me on – despite being long gone. I still carry their words with me, though they spoke very little. In fact, their actions did more to convey their faith and wisdom. They taught by example, over and over...

    "Thanks."
    -Alan

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  5. Your dad can't beat up mine. My dad did the same damn thing. He might have gotten a call from your dad to fix up his cattle, even.

    Oh, and Amen.

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  6. One of my favorite stories about my Dad was his mentorship of an early 20s man. This man worked under my Dad at the lumberyard. Dad was the foreman. The enforcer. He didn't put up with the punk's attitude. This particular young man was in trouble with the law a lot. My father wrote a letter to the judge as a character witness. The young man was busted for armed robbery. I was about 10 at the time. He was the convict working on our farm for a while. He spent his 25th birthday at our farm on worker's release. He got his shit right after that episode.

    He didn't need to do it. He just did it. Awesome. I want to give a shit about people that much. I don't right now.

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    1. BTW, my father worked at a lumberyard and had a farm at the same time for quite a while. He worked a lot of hours. Not a lot of entitlement coming out of him.

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