Thursday, November 6, 2014
A father-in-law's perspective
Call it a
gift, or call it a developed inclination, satisfaction for me is taking in life
and beaming it back out to the world.
The quote from O led Al to recall and share a comment made by my
dad many years ago. Dad’s words have stayed with him he says.
It was after a long road vacation we took. It was the kind of
trip made in the years our kids were in grade school. We wanted to show them
the wonders of our big United States.
The trip included stops at many places that aren’t on
interstates but require going out of the way to see them. We put a bunch of
miles on the car. We came home full of the vision of our wonderful country
through its regional attractions.
Al and my dad were probably in
the living room, close enough, as it came to dinnertime, to hear the rattle of
plates as they came out of the kitchen shelves to be set on the table,
As they visited Al remarked (with a sense of accomplishment
in his voice) that we hadn’t taken one wrong turn on the trip.
“That’s too bad,” my dad answered. An inveterate road trip man
himself, my dad by then had racked up thousands of miles with my mom as they
traveled West each fall in well-earned vacation time after closing down the
seasonal home.
The wisdom in my dad’s reply took maybe a second to sink in. Al
was impressed with it, enough so that it has stuck and shaped some of his
perspective about travel.
The gist of what my dad was saying is this: a wrong turn here or
there, or a detour, can be considered a nuisance or a delay at the time. It
can have interesting and even beneficial results if you’re open to the
experience.
Unexpected or spontaneous roads may turn out to be more suitable or
more rewarding than the planned (and often predictable) route, or the
destination you start out to see.
Ro Giencke – November 6, 2014.
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