1. God

2. Dad, I have not always been grateful or considerate, and grew up with a hefty sense of entitlement, expecting you to clean up my messes.  Thank you for doing so.

3. Thank you for not bringing me up the way you were brought up.  Maybe the pendulum swung too much in the other direction, but you’ve never been mendacious or cruel.

4. And you’ve never lied to me.

5. I cannot equal your fiduciary responsibility, writing everything down in a ledger, mostly out of fear that I struggle to confront today.

6. How you instilled in me a love of music and the many concerts we’ve been to together.

7. How when the research center closed, without complaint, you went and got another job within a couple of months

8. For paying for my education and other things too many to name or count, and what a great kid I was taking them all, and I am grateful for your generosity and the advantages which I probably took for granted and still do, sic transit

9 . And your generosity towards my children, not just with gifts but with your time and love, I don’t know how we could have gotten through all these years without your help

10. And your generosity towards others.  Cousin David and I were talking at Aunt Norma’s funeral and he told me how you sent them money for Christmas gifts when he and his wife were a young family, just having children.  How proud I was to say “That’s the kind of man my father is.”  How modest you were when I told you about what David said.  You said:  “Well, it wasn’t much.”   That’s our way, isn’t it.

11. And your sense of humor

12. And your love of nature, and all the peaks and valleys we visited.

13. And your delight at the ball games

14. And your silence

15. And twenty years or so ago when I asked you, Dad, what do you hope for me, what do you want me to be, you laughed and told me you had no expectations of me, and in effect, I don’t remember the words, to be who I am.  The best you could give me.  Maybe I am just becoming who I am today.  Thank you.  Happy Birthday, Dad.