In a Leo Kottke song some time back he talks about looking in the mirror and seeing his father's face.
This past week I sat in a hospital in Florida with my soon-to-be 70 year-old father. He had undergone emergency quadruple bypass surgery and the doctors were concerned that he had also suffered a minor stroke at some point in the process.
As he fitfully struggled to get some real sleep I had hours to look into his face, and turn to the left into the mirror and see his face again, about 33 years earlier.
It was among the scarier and more sobering experiences of my life to see my father laying there in such a state of vulnerability.
Dad's home and doing better now, but he has quite a road to go for recovery.
And in looking in that mirror, I have quite a road to go to myself - in more ways than one.
3 comments:
Hope your dad is feeling better real soon..
Mike, I see my father in the face of my 16 year old grandson. I see him in the beautiful sunsets and in a waving American flag and in the faces of aging veterans with their hands to their foreheads in salute.
How blessed are you and I to have and to have had fathers present in our lives in all the ways that matter.
I imagine your father sees himself in your face as well. Prayers for his recovery.
Kerri
Very nice post. I look in the mirror sometimes and see a constant reminder that I have to be a better father than mine was to me. I may look a little like him, nothing I can do about that, but I work hard each and every day to not be like him.
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