I Have an Excellent Father

Today is Father's Day, so I thought I'd put some time in to celebrate my Dad. Not how old he is, but much more how awesome he is.

Even as a little boy, my dad understood the importance of an education. See his smile there? That's a genuine "Today is my first day of school and I'm ready to go get some learnin'!" He's also clearly pleased that he understands style...Dad doesn't care it's August (or perhaps September; I'm not sure how they roll in Old-town Utah), he'd rather wear his black shirt and black jeans with pride. No sense matching his colorful older sisters; Dad is a TRENDSETTER. Forget the bright, brass colors of the 60s, 70s, and 80s- Dad has the vision to dress for the 90s, 2000s, and businessmen of all times.

What a good example! From my Dad, I know that education, and style, but mostly education, is something to be proud of and smile about.

But the thing that gets Dad smiling the most is his job title. No, not his job at Avaya, but his job as a Dad. Now, as sharp a dresser as I've already explained my father to be, he likes his jobs to be uniform-less. But even on the one day that as a father he needs to wear something less-than-stylish, he's happy to do it.

That's my sister he's holding, on her very first day of life. And he's awfully happy because, after four years of raising a boy, he finally gets a daughter. And obviously, daughters are ~the best~. Plus, I'm sure he had that smile imaging her future. That tiny little girl would grow up to sing and dance and make sure she's always pretty, and then she'd meet a great opera singing, law interpreting, religion abiding young man and marry him. Yeah- knowing he was holding that much potential and as a good father, he could make that happen; that would make him smile like that. Hospital gown or not.

This is a different kind of smile. Apparently, for my Dad's 41st birthday, I made him a "custom CD". The picture file is full of pictures of Dad opening this extensive list of songs on classy loose-leaf paper that are apparently on this CD that I apparently made for him. I don't remember this at all (shocker!), but I look very proud. And Dad gets to practice his "I have to smile because it's cute and my second daughter made it for me because she's too cheap to buy me something and in nine years no one will remember this anyway" smile. He has to deal with that kind of present from me a lot. That's the thing when you're Alaina. You like giving the inexpensive, "from the heart" gifts that always end up tacky and forgotten. But Dad's a businessman who understands pleasing people when they try, so he can still smile. And still manage to love me. That's a good Dad trait.

This kind of smile is completely different. This is how Dad practices his myspace self-portrait. It's a very difficult task, taking a good myspace self-portrait. An intense balance between tilting your head down to not get a nostril shot and keeping it up to not create an illusion of a million chins. It's extra hard when you're wearing a hat and trying to get a second person in the shot, and I think Dad did a pretty good job. Considering he doesn't practice.

But he's not just giving that weird half-smile because he's so focused on keeping his facial features in balance within an arms-length...do realize that my Dad is in a tiny airplane with his son and his own Dad, one so small that if they all laid head to toe, the three of them are probably larger than the craft itself. This is the son who he raised in his house for over 20 years, who he watched build empires on the computer and trebuchets in the garage for the purposes of destruction. This is the son who he watched throw his sister around the house, making odd monster noises and threatening to knock down their toys and fortresses. This is the son who put the puppy with breakable legs on the television just for a pun. He's the one who's in charge of keeping the plane in the air and getting them down safely. That's his smile as he faces what many would assume to be certain death, but he figures he can trust.

That's because my brother is a very good pilot. You see, he's also the kid who lived for two years as a missionary of the Lord in a third-world country, built temples out of blocks, met, fell in love with, and married (in that order) a beautiful sweet woman, attended and graduated high school and college, and proved a great example of his own. Surely because his father raised him that way.

Yeah, Father's Day is a pretty excellent holiday. It helps us remember that our dads aren't just there for kicks, to help balance out the family and do the grilling. They help raise us into the people we are, teaching us values from their own examples. It's because of my Dad that I'm the way I am, for better, for worse, but mostly for better. And I know my other two siblings; successful, happy, married (or almost), righteous, and with great smiles of the own; they'd say the same.

"The Best Day" can be found by Taylor Swift