The Middlewesterner

This paragraph from Tom Montag really hit me between the eyes. I have been having the same thoughts pretty regular these days as I look in the mirror of a morning. It's not that I look that much like dad...But their is enough of a resemblance to cause me to remember bits and pieces.

A fellow starts out to become his own man. He wants so much to be his own man, to make his own way in the world, to become his own unique self. The longer I watched my father in the hospital bed, the more that we talked, the more I recognized I was seeing myself there, my own future self. My father has shaped me indelibly. I am not complaining, I've been marked by a good man. It's just surprising to see how little of me there is in the world, and how much I take from my father, from my family, from the land, the world I come from. Nature or nurture? Ultimately it doesn't matter exactly how it gets stirred; we seldom end up very far from where we began.

Unlike Tom, we said goodbye to my dad going on 11 years ago. I guess I too was marked by a good man. Thanks Tom, for the words I couldn't have said but can feel way to well.

Source: The Middlewesterner