Rhythms of Life

When Dad passed away I volunteered for the job of organizing his personal papers to help settle his estate. This endeavor proved to be a fascinating journey through my father’s life through the artifacts I found.

I didn’t know my father saved my elementary school report cards. I thought they were long gone. It was amusing to see the remarks of my teachers about my performance so many years ago. My fifth grade son had the most fun perusing these. His struggles with penmanship seem less worrisome knowing his mother got a ‘D’ in penmanship in the second grade. I swear the teacher was just trying to teach me a lesson; she wanted me to slow down. I was always rushing to get my papers in first. Lucky for me that grade has done double duty in teaching lessons. My son learned that his Mom is fallible, yet was still able to go on to a successful school career, and that he will probably do the same.

I found my father’s completed manuscript for a novel. I was surprised my father was a writer. He never mentioned this novel to me before. He wrote it around the time he ended his duty with the Air Force. It is a fictional work, but seems mostly autobiographical. The fictional Dave Black was in the Air Force the same years as my father and visited the same countries on the same timeline as my father. I never knew much about my father’s life in the service and reading his novel is providing insight into his young life. There are stories that seem incongruous with the family man with five young daughters that I knew while growing. I guess that is why I didn’t about this novel, but doesn’t answer why I didn’t know that he was a writer. I knew he was a private person, and that I am like him that respect. I guess I am more like him than I suspected.

Tucked away in his files were song-writing contracts and samples of poetry. My family used one of his poems on his memorial cards; it was a poem he wrote to my mother after they first met. I guess the song contracts and the abandoned guitar are relics of his youth. I heard rumors that my father had musical abilities, but I never had evidence of it before. It makes sense to me that his hobbies were interrupted while he raised his family. I think about the things I used to do before my son was born that I no longer do. I used to be politically active, was a member of a golf league and studied my genealogy. I can imagine my son someday saying that he never knew I did these things, especially since I’ve taken up new hobbies and may never get back to some of my old past times.

The journey through my father’s life helped me see my father as more than just a parent. I glimpsed into his life as a young unmarried man. He was a person who sang songs and wrote poetry. I understand now that he sacrificed all his hobbies to work two jobs to support his growing family. So it is as it should be; that I learn more about the rhythms of life as I get older. I’ve learned that life’s lessons are sometimes accompanied with sorrow, but that the sorrow is necessary to the lesson.

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