I'd pay money to see his reaction to the news that Utah is the first state to pass the Free-Range parenting bill. What?! My dad would just stare at me and tell me to repeat that because it's one of the craziest things he's ever heard of. Why would a government pass a bill so that your child can walk, alone, to the grocery store, play at the park or ride public transit without an adult assisting them. Do we not give our young offspring any credit for having brains?
Another one might be.....we have a distracted driving law in effect. Yep. If you're on your phone or putting on make-up while driving your motor vehicle, you can get a ticket for, get this, $287! Some places one cannot even drink from their water bottle with one hand while driving with the other. Dad would look at me and squint for a long time and then proceed to tell me how he used to roll a cigarette and steer with his knee AND wave to the police all at the same time! Well, Dad, I suppose people are not that talented anymore.
Ooohhh.....here's one that will knock his socks off! ....The legalization of marijuana! I don't even want to think of what he'd say about that! Isn't everyone a little cloudy in the head already?
There may be a law or two that he might approve of....no smoking in public areas is one. He had a heart condition and we're all pretty sure it was from stress and heavy smoking all those years.
I know ol' Abe would be very sad and teary-eyed about all those hockey players that were in a tragic bus crash in Saskatchewan. While sitting at the kitchen table, he would bow his head with his elbows on his knees and you would see the muscles in his jaw twitching while he's thinking about it. When he was like that, everybody left him be. He hated hearing about somebody needlessly having their life taken from them, especially when they had so much more life left to live. I think back to times when he was like this and I think he absorbed other people's pain and sadness.
Even though my father and I didn't see eye-to-eye, we'd still have healthy conversations and I'd actually feel like we were on the same team sometimes. It was a love-hate thing. We always seemed to get each other riled up about something. He's been gone almost 15 years now and I find myself wishing he was still around just for the sake of NOT getting his advice.
The scary thing is that I'm finding I'm more and more like him as I'm getting older! Help me, Lord!
