(the eponymous canyon, Palo Duro, also known as the grand canyon of
Texas,
Photo
courtesy Destination360 - pretty, but not sure it’s for me either)
He worked more jobs than you can imagine (my favorite remains a summer
gig as a hotel nightman), he met my mom in college and they married
almost immediately. He served years in the Army, he pulled up the family
and moved to India to watch the land react to the
green
revolution in real time, and in that moment, saw the future of
development and the coming crisis of sustainability. We live in a very
green place now in East Tennessee, something I think reflects all the
way back to those dry places for him.
I am
unbelievably, joyously lucky to have grown up with him. He fed me books
that I wasn’t supposed to read - Dune in 4th grade stands out - and
taught me how to think, how to structure my thoughts, how to find
liminal spaces and how to work inside them. I owe much of my career to
those skills, and thus, to him. He taught me - he keeps teaching me -
every day.
My son calls him Pop, my wife calls him Tom,
and my mom calls him “hey you.” But to me and my sisters, he’s just
Dad.
And Dad? Congratulations. You’ve earned it. We are
so proud of you that it hurts.