It is Sunday morning, about 1:00 AM, and I am at the end of a long day and evening. It has been a wonderful day, but having arrived at home shortly after midnight, I have no one with whom to share it, so I would like to do it here.
In the two or so years I have been subscribed to this board, I have seen and met some very special people. At first, it may appear we have little in common, but a deeper inspection might reveal we all have more in common than we thought possible.
One of those common items would be parenthood.
My children are grown now. The youngest graduates from high school this year. I'm not qualified to decide how good a parent I have been, but my daughters are. Not having had many people to use for guidance, I had no idea what was required to be a good father. I had to guess as I went along.
Of all the people in the world, it took my youngest daughter to let me know what it takes to truly be a father, and how deeply one person can care about another. It also took her to get me into one of those institutions we call "The Church".
Yes, it finally happened. A member of the Zephyr family hath done converted to the Roman Catholic faith. My youngest daughter was baptized tonight, and began her career as a Practicing Catholic undefeated.
She got her old man to attend.
I don't go to church that often. It had been fifteen years, not counting my father's funeral, so I don't really know the drill. I went in tonight, and beheld a sight so common in the environs henceforth known as Far North Dallas: A Jacuzzi.
I did the normal: mixed myself a Cuervo and Cuervo, dropped my clothes, lit a big Fat Albert Cuban Cigar, and settled in. Nothing like a Jacuzzi in cold weather.
Except I noticed that the water was cold. At the same time my senses picked up on this fact, a man dressed in black with a funny shirt tapped me on the shoulder.
"Sir, I must ask you to please get out and get dressed. This is our new baptismal font, and it hasn't been properly blessed." Little did he know, it had. A true Texas blessing, in fact.
Then the ceremony. Yes, as Grandpa used to say, "Dem Catholics, Dey Sure Is Long Winded". It took three hours, but I knew there was Free Food and Drink at the end of it all. Unfortunately, I mistook the communion for that little bit of Lagniappe.
That reminds me: When are they going to put some flavor in those soup crackers, and would it kill them to buy GOOD wine just once?
Now, for the truth of it.....
To be honest, I was proud of my little girl. She's 18 now, and very much her own person. I don't ask that she follow in my footsteps, God forbid, but that she decide her own fate, and have the confidence to see it through. To take responsibility for her failures, and take credit for her successes. Knowing her, there will be many more of the latter.
She probably did ask my opinions a time or two in her spiritual journey, and I didn't realize it. No, I'm not religious. Not in the least. Certainly, I have faith, things I believe in. She has hers. If anything, I am the Anti-Catholic. I do realize that we all need something to fulfill that part of our beings that cannot be sustained by the physical world, but I have spent a lifetime trying to find it and someday I will
My daughter pursued a goal on her own. She did not discuss it with her parents to get their approval. She also did something that I will always cherish. She did not ask that I convert, only that I be there to support her, because I am someone she cares for.
She's my daughter, and she is what the folks in my hometown called "Good People", and for her, I'd walk into a brick wall. No doubt about it.
Thanks for indulging me in a rare moment of sentimentality.



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