My father taught me so many lessons. My husband has taught me a great deal more. Each family has a value system. It can be one taught generation to generation, like laws passed down from the mouths of elders to the precious ears of babes. Some will be learned and changed and adapted as the members within each family experiences the world placed before them. Their insight gives way to new values.
What will come as no real surprise, is that no two value systems are the same. What is in your top ten may only intersect mine briefly. My number one may be your number nine. But what I have come to understand is one family’s claim is no more important than another’s. It is the view from which we see life. As such, we should display more tolerance towards the principles of others. As a child, my father was so adamant in what I perceive to be his number one, “You will not sponge off others, or take advantage of them”. Those words have been engrained in me so much so that I struggle to accept other’s generosity. That was a lesson hard learned from my father I think that he was loathe to have us repeat it. Forced to grow up early and faced with far more responsibility than a young man should have to bare, I understand the importance.
Scott with such a different life story sees the world through a gentler lens. He has taught me and our girls that generosity is a gift that can be freely given and beautifully received. That our world is better when we have equal parts of magnanimity and reciprocity. Perhaps after the last three years, that has become our number one as well. Just a different side to the same coin.
I’m proud that Ryan, the girls and I have been loved by two strong and amazing men. Their influence can be felt in our every day actions. Today is but one day but we honour Scott and the General the whole year long.
Happy Father’s Day.