Water is Funny

Once, while we were riding in my brother's boat, my dad said, "Water is funny. You can cut it with a knife, but it always goes back the way it was." I thought, "Now that's deep," not even recognizing my pun. Then I thought, "Dad's a nut." Really, it seemed like he was sometimes! But mostly in a fun way. (Sometimes he could be an annoying nut, but I don't think he was ever a scary nut.)

Of course Dad wasn't really a nut at all. There was a deepness to him that wasn't always apparent; the things he said seldom revealed what was really in his mind. Like the day he said that about water. I'm sure he was thinking about how awesome it was that God had made everything -- Dad probably even knew what day He made the water -- and how everything has its own properties, and water is the only thing that goes back where it was if you cut it with a knife. He may have been wondering why God made it that way, but I don't think he spent too much time second-guessing God. That was one of the best things about Dad. He just accepted what was. I guess he was a good example of "If you don't like something, change it; if you can't change it, change the way you look at it."

He really was a likeable nut. I can't count the number of people who came up to me at his funeral and told me that. Oh, not in those words. But you could tell that they loved him for his "nuttiness."

I remember a lot of things about my dad. I credit him with teaching me the "Three R's." (That's Reading, Running and Religion.) The important stuff. But mostly I remember what a fun nut he was. Maybe Fun was the most important thing he taught us.

(Photo of Tom by Karen Branson or Kris Karlek, Kure Beach, NC)