Lessons from my Dad

It’s no secret that I think my Dad was a saint, or more likely a bodhisattva, sent here to lead an exemplary life for those who knew him to follow.  Here are some of the lessons he taught me in his time on earth.  For those who knew him and loved him, what lessons did you learn?

1. He taught me to shoot, not to shoot well, because I didn’t have the aptitude or the desire.  But, he taught me to handle and respect a gun.
2. He taught me that the value in a person or animal is not in what they can do for you, but what you experience while you are with them, what you can learn from learning about them, and how you can help them.
3. He taught me all the words to What do you do with a Drunken Sailor and Waltzing Matilda.
4. He taught me how to respectfully disagree with a person.
5. He taught me that every animal is exactly as intelligent as it needs to be--there is no point in discussing the intelligence of a horse, a pig or a fish--they are all perfectly evolved to be what they are.
6. He taught me to throw a straight punch.
7. He taught me to appreciate classical music, and to enjoy playing it, even if I was a less-than-mediocre musician.
8. He taught me to identify native trees and plants and to identify birds by their songs (I wish I remembered those lessons a little better).
9. He taught me poems:  If by Rudyard Kipling, The Rhyme of the Restless Ones by Robert Service and Invictus by William Ernest Henley.
10. He taught me that, when given the choice, always order the house wine, but always order an imported beer.
11. He taught me to love Shakespeare, especially Henry V.
12. He taught me the value of quiet in the wilderness.
13. He taught me how to work, and how to give my word and follow through on it.
14. He taught me to “fill up the back of a shovel, because then the front takes care of itself”.
15. He taught me how to pace out 100 yards and how to find corner monuments in the middle of the woods (he was a land surveyor).
16. He taught me that there is very little in life that cannot be patched up with either duct tape or baling twine.
17. He taught me how to cook a steak.
18. He taught me that when training horses, as in life, sometimes things around you get pretty crazy.  In those moments, the best thing to do is to “be a post”, hold your ground and wait until things calm down to make any movement.
19. He taught me how to accept a debilitating illness with grace and courage and to face death with the peacefulness of a life well-lived.
20. He taught me to love bagpipe music.
21. He taught me that the true value in things is not what they look like but what their purpose is and that the more scars a person, animal, or object holds, the more precious it is.
22. He taught me how to read a map and draw a scale drawing.
23. He taught me to drive a tractor and paddle a canoe.
24. He taught me that if you're going to have a knife, keep it sharp, if you're going to have a gun, keep it clean and if you're going to have a horse, keep it mannerly.