reflections on my father

Jayson's recent post intitled The Guitar has inspired me to make some similar reflections on my weblog today. He poses this question:

Do you ever have those moments in your childhood that you wish you could just keep in your pocket and pull it out and experience it whenever you need it, like putting on a warm comforter that your grandmother made on a cold day? Times when just think about it, and you feel warm inside even to your very soul and being?

In response to that question, my answer would be: "yes, but...". Like Jayson, I must confess that I don't have an abundance of memories to draw from that fit within the category described above, but I would also like to add that new experiences continue to be added to my list of treasured memories. Just yesterday I spoke with my father on the phone for over an hour (which is a first in and of itself), but even more significantly, it seems to me that we are starting to connect on a level that I never would have hoped for or even expected - we are becoming friends.

In this post I may very well have crossed over the line into the realm of "after-school special cheese". However, I would like to elaborate on the steps I have been taking in my relationship with my father. Our relationship has never been characterized by closeness in a conventional sense. My father is a man of few words and a character that is demonstrated through hard work and personal integrity. He never sat me down to lecture me on his philosophy of living, but rather this was something he demonstrated through his actions. As such, our conversations have almost always been to the point, and our extended discussions have typically been centered around work, sports, weather, and the like.

This is what makes our conversation on the phone yesterday stand out to me. We touched upon issues of hope, pain, personal identity, loneliness, and our dreams for the future. Perhaps it is just me, entering a new phase of growth within my own life that I can now appreciate a conversation of this nature, or perhaps we are both growing. Whatever the case may be, I look forward to building new memories that will be a source of comfort in days yet to come.