As we age, we realize our parents might actually be… smart! It took time and a lot of 3:00 a.m. sit-up in sleep moments to realize that, like my father, I do think outside the box.
Now I realize that it is a gift, along with musicality and writing. Before television reality shows provided rote information on how to run your restaurant, raise your children or train your dog, my father was out there doing it.
Dad is nearly eighty years old. He turned around a small college, a culturally significant arts and education institution, an internationally renowned dance group, and changed the fortunes of an international aid organization. One doesn’t get a gold watch for that. People who are hired to effect change are fought every step of the way and their successors reap the benefits of their efforts.
How do parents raise the successors? They go to the right schools, know the right people, and with a good Board can be trusted to keep things on an even keel and reap the rewards their predecessor gained with grit and determination.
I prefer the former and while I’ve never congratulated my Dad on the works he did (at work) when I was growing up I do so now. Oh, at nearly eighty, he’s got another venture…. It’s a successful non-profit work in the making. Grit and determination.
The downside is that he may be loved 50-100 years after he dies and a building will be named. I still go for grit and determination vs. complacency and servitude. It’s the American way. Ciao, Dee
Cooking with Dee 