If this doesn't put things into perspective

[joedog]

Re-Gifting


12/23/2009

By: Story and Photo by Lawrence Taylor
My daughter posted on my Facebook wall that I shouldn’t write a whole paragraph when I post. Too many words. We’re a microwave popcorn, high-speed wireless society and we want it quick and dirty so we can go on to the next thing.
Some stories simply take a while to develop. She’ll learn. She’s just 16.
When I was 16 my father had only given me one Christmas present in my whole life. I got plenty of presents – don’t get me wrong – and he paid for them. Mom made the purchases. Dad just wasn’t a Christmas guy. He sat solemn in the background, pocketknife in hand to cleanly cut the paper we tore through like tiny tornadoes.
So I was a little surprised when he handed me some paper that Christmas morning. I unfolded it and looked at it a bit before I figured out what it was. I’d never had one before, but turning 16 that year put me in a new category – Oklahoma Hunting and Fishing License holder.
He handed both my older brothers the same type of paper. I folded mine and put it in my pocket. I later lost it, found it, lost it, washed it in the laundry and finished that year without the actual paper, but with the comforting knowledge that I had one, and surely that would be enough for any game warden I might encounter.
Every Christmas he gave me another combo hunting/fishing license for the coming year. It never occurred to me until years later what he was doing for his boys, making sure we were legal to start. We had the basic legal foundation.
What we built on that foundation was a matter he cared about, too. His constant safety instruction while we hunted and gentle freedom when we fished was always ripe with ethical suggestions and game management philosophy. When he borrowed the phrase “ethics are what you do when no one is looking” it stuck. It didn’t always prevent a misdeed or transgression, but it was there, solid as an oak.
Years go by, filled with fishing trips and hunting ventures, often with Dad as the leader glassing a pond on a distant hillside for mallards or hauling a johnboat a hundred miles to fish a private lake. Many more were on my own or with brothers or friends. All the while I never spent a dime or a thought on a hunting or fishing license.
Then came the year when I had a daughter ripping up her own presents and Dad handed me an envelope from the Department of Wildlife. It was more substantial – both physically and conceptually – than in years past. I first thought “credit card,” but it was a Lifetime Oklahoma Hunting/Fishing License. It might be the closest I ever came to crying over a gift, and my eyes did glaze as I looked across the room at the man carefully sliding the knife blade along the seam of a festively decorated box.
I learned later that the man for whom “Bah, Humbug” was a regular phrase during December (although it had no real sting to it) had gone to considerable trouble to keep his sons from discovering what he’d done. He’d even driven into the city while I was at work to wait in my driveway for the postman so he could pull the Department of Wildlife envelope from my mailbox.
You know how this story ends. He passed away that year, the same year the giant cottonwood tree that dominated our family's land finally fell during an Oklahoma thunderstorm.
Dad should know that the licenses were only the physical part of his gift. The love of the outdoors and the knowledge of how to treat it were the real gifts, ones I hope stay with my own kids. I know that each time I take them out I repeat something he said, then I smile and shake my head a little. And I give the old Scrooge a sincere “thank you.”

Hope everyone is enjoying the Day!

[bamabassman]

joedog.......man that is jsut an awesum story. seems ol dad was a great FATHER i my eyes. oyurs too i think. we seem to think our parents are always out to ruin our lives when we are young. but in reality, they are teaching us some very vailuable lesons and love us unconditionally. they may show it in different ways, but they love us. merry CHRISTMAS joe.

[Dogmatic]

Even at this time of year, there aren't enough of these stories, and in these times, I think to the detriment of us all, a lesson that is not too often taught or learned today. Thank you, and Happy Holidays to all.