The Zen of My Ol' Dad plus Happy, Happy to Your Ol' Dads

Yevette came back just now to talk about Trigger, Roy Roger's horse, and how he was stuffed and mounted somewhere in Fort Worth.  My reaction was, "That's fuckin' horrible!  It'd be like going to Red Square to see Lenin's dead ass!"

She said it was kind of cool as a kid and I bet it was.  I told her when I was a kid, my ol' Dad held me out over a shark tank and that's why I ended up this way.  She wasn't familiar with the story because, amazingly enough, even the Regulars don't read every word I write.

There was a huge aquarium in Sydney, Australia, and it was so large there was a second floor balcony from where one could view these sharks, mantas, and all manner of huge biters.  My ol' Dad thought it would be a wizard idea to hold my little self out over that and duly traumatized the rest of my fucking life.

Left to right:  my then-young Mother, Doc, Silas

Maybe this was about the age since I still had to be light enough to lift me over the rail and out over the water.  Maybe he's shouting, "You bloody liar," just now and I might be since how do I know for sure precisely where he held me but I do know for sure I thought the tank was seafood gumbo and shortly I will be in it.


Far from resenting this, it's a moment I'll never forget and a classic example of his general philosophy of if it jams with the moment then just fuckin' do it.  My sibs have varying estimations of that but my own is exalted for the Zen of it.  You can make a mistake by doing nothing and you might make a mistake taking some action but that maybe you can fix whereas it's often impossible to repair something which happened due to one's own inactivity.


My Ol' Dad

My story may not be much
when it winds up in disaster
but a perspective on the thing
is the important part to master
since here I see the world
impossible for you to have
unless you abandon all
to follow in my path

There's too much pain to behold
so others must not see
since how can they have so much
there's nothing left for me
We are so many millions more
and how can any comprehend
living in relative comfort
while others face the end

This may seem like hostile judgment
but understand my words
since there's pain I wish you never see
there's suffering beyond measure
You really must be careful
or you'll end up like Peter Green
when he took everything he had
and gave it all away

I love Peter Green
for the goodness in his heart
but, for all his good intentions,
that was not the place to start
he set such a noble pace
it will be shining out for years
but there's still much to be done
to calm the desperate fears

There's a better way to fix things
but it will never come by shouting
and only in a dispassionate way
will we get past all the flouting
of the things which are important
for trinkets and and idle repast
when the things we need the most
are the ones which really last

The Traveler turned up North just then
but he had a few more words
I listened so carefully
and this is what I heard
"I've seen the world and all its seas
I learned but the best I had
were lessons from when I was young
and I learned them from my Dad"

- Colonel Arbuthnot Jones