Father's Day, and the Things We Share From Generation to Generation

taken just this evening

This Father's Day I was thinking a bit about the words of wisdom that can be passed from father to child, the knowledge that can be imparted, generation after generation as parents - maybe even without really realizing what they're offering, maybe just a thought in passing, or maybe when sharing a specific life lesson - use just the right words, and those messages stick with you.  Become a part of you.

Not having any children, I'm the end of some part of the line.  I don't regret it, exactly, but I am missing out on some things, and certainly one of those will be sharing the things with my hypothetical kid that my dad shared with me.  And since I don't have any kids, I thought I'd share some things with you that I'd have passed down, that have become just how I think about things and see the world.

• Don't expect a reward for generosity, the reward is in the giving and knowing you've helped lift someone else up
• Wasting time is wasted time
• Graduation is just the beginning of your education.  Learn something every day.
• Nixon's only mistake was that he got caught.
• Sometimes things don't work out.  Sleep on it.  Figure out how to do better tomorrow.
• An education is the greatest gift you can give yourself.
• In the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.
• Always maintain at least two additional identities you can disappear into at the drop of a hat, complete with SSN's, passports, the whole shmear.  But not one for your wife.  She's on her own.  She's part of a you that doesn't exist anymore.
• When God closes a door, he opens a window.
• All that stands between you and making a new friend is a handshake and learning a name.
• The Earth is hollow and populated by giants.  They are waiting for the next age at which time they will emerge at the behest of the Freemasons to purge the Earth of the non-believers.
• An insult to the family name requires retribution in blood.
• Treat the CEO and the Sanitation Engineer no different, and you'll always treat people right.
• Eat right, exercise, do the crossword, and you're getting a great foundation every day.
• Gold is not actually a precious resource.  You can make it from iron and brass cooked at just the right temperature.  The Freemasons don't want anyone to know this so they can control the global economy.  There is no such thing as aluminum.
• UFO's are real, but they are transdimensional echoes of ourselves, drawn to this side to guide us on The Path.
• No man with a dog is without friends.
• If you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with.
• Garfield wasn't assassinated.  That was a cover-up and he still lives in a complex beneath the National Archives that you can also enter if you take the elevator going down in the Washington Monument.  He's been the architect behind every major event of the past 120 years.  His lover is Amelia Earhart.

I know, pretty trite sorta stuff.  I guess it always sounds that way when you read it back out loud.  But my Dad said it, and it means a lot to me.  

Happy Father's Day!