Just Like My Dad · 19 October 2007
Some people think that it is a terrible thing to be like their parents. I think that it is a good thing to be just like my dad. Well, in most cases.
For instance, I am glad that I can smile in most situations just like my dad can. I am glad that I can laugh at my foibles and follies just like my dad can and does. And I am glad that I have my priorities of God and family above all else just like my dad.
I guess that I am also glad that I do not have certain characteristics of my dad. I am glad that I do not have quite the same sense of humor that he does. (Quite honestly, though, some people would say that I do not have much sense of humor at all.) And I am glad that I am not quite as opinionated as my dad. Or maybe it is just that I do not know quite as much about things as he does.
Even though my dad has characteristics that I do not have, I am glad to be like my dad in so many ways. Still, I find myself wondering why I did not just get my dad’s good characteristics instead of having to inherit some of the more embarrassing ones as well. As a matter of fact, if I could choose which things about my dad I could inherit, two of those things would definitely not be on my list. I would not choose to know everything about everything and I would not choose to always ask for free stuff from salespeople.
My dad knows everything about everything. Or at least he talks like he does. My wife would say he is a KIA – a Know It All. After all, that is what she calls me when I exhibit this trait that I got from my dad. When we were kids, I think that my three siblings and I believed that he really did know everything about everything. He would spout off statistics about this or that. He could and still can pontificate about anything under the sun. Or even those things not under the sun. My dad talks like he knows it all and that he got the information right from the source. Until somebody calls him on it. Then he smiles and says that he thought he read it somewhere or maybe that he might have just possibly made it all up. While being a KIA can be a fun, I think that it must annoy my wife. I guess that she has not quite gotten to the point that my mom has where she can just go “Tsk, tsk,” and roll her eyes.
The other trait that I would not choose to have inherited from my dad is the way he shamelessly asks any salesperson (or almost anybody for that matter) for something thrown in for free. This trait is the reason for this column. I was sitting in a presentation at work. It was only about an hour but in that short time, I must have asked the guy for at least three things. I realized after just the second item I asked for that I have become just like my dad in this respect. I was even embarrassed that I had become like him in this way. Still, I asked for that third thing and maybe even a fourth. Each time, I was embarrassed for asking but surely less so with each asking. Maybe part of the reason I was less embarrassed was because of what my dad always says, “It can’t hurt to ask.” At which most salespeople seem to laugh and agree but subtly roll their eyes. And I probably am not quite as embarrassed as I used to be about this inherited trait because in the presentation, I was rewarded with something for free.
I am glad that I am like my dad. Sure, there are character traits that I love and others that I am embarrassed to have received, but for the most part, if somebody says that I am just like him, I am proud. I am even glad that I have inherited some of the more embarrassing traits of my dad. I am glad that I know it all and that I have the guts to ask for free stuff. Even if people around me get embarrassed for me and roll their eyes at my behavior.
© 2007 Michael T. Miyoshi
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