This is a posthumous happy father’s day message about our father, Beryl Donald Paullin, who passed on Sept 16, 2017.
Sharon and I read some of Dad’s 100’s of famous expressions today. What insight, and wit that he possessed!
And, oh what a critic he could be!
He was quite the colorful character. My youth personality was developed trying to balance his often times over-exuberant energy with a more relaxed perspective.
Failure? I should have opted to be more like him, if I wanted to be known more. I probably would have alienated the same number of acquaintances, either way, over the course of my life..
Anyway, I really miss the guy!
(Photo is from 2013 Alaska cruise with my sister Pam, wife Sharon, and, of course father-son. On the drive home from Seattle, no more than 15 minutes out of the port, Dad had already forgot that he had been gone one week on the cruise. He never forgot our names, however)
There are some who thought that my father was a horse’s ass, but that is the view one sometimes gets when in second place, having been passed by his race horse of a mind. A man like my father, who lived a full life, could have his own book written about him, and not scratch the surface of all the people that he impacted, positively or negatively, and all of the experiences that he had, all of the humor that he shared, and all of the wisdom that he developed. My sister, my wife, and I wrote several pages of “Beryl-isms”, which are quotes directly from my father about life in general. I have presented a few of his “top 50” statements, which he repeated many times over the last few years of his life. In parenthesis, I have included a few of my replies to his common statements that I used to give back to dad as part of our “conversation”..
1). Don’t wait too long to retire. People think they need to work those extra years, they work that extra one or two years, thinking they need the money, and death takes over, and they never make it to retirement (well, Dad, I retired early, but we will have to wait and see if that has any beneficial effect on my longevity. Right now, my main goal is to try to outlive you, oh immortal one!).
2). Oh those rich people, all of that money, and they still have to die anyway! (and the rest of us, we have to die too, darn it!)
3). Why do you need to know, are you writing a book? (well, as a matter of fact I am!)
4). I really took the system, didn’t I? (after being retired and on pension for 35 years, contributing $22,742 to your pension, and getting over one million dollars back, I would say that you did!)
5). Come back again when you can’t stay so long (well, I am working on that one!)
6). Don’t you have something better to be doing? (yes, but you are the priority of the moment, so try to enjoy it with me)
7). Sure am glad that I am retired, or is it retarded? (um, I won’t touch that one)
8). I might be here, but I am not all here (then where is the rest of you?)
9). You know, having a dog like Rocky adds 7 years to my life (yes, but your dog took 7 years off of mine!)
10). (to any waitress) Say, you sure are looking good this evening. Would you like to come home with me and serve me my favorite meal? (argh! So embarrassing!)
11). I am not trying to be pretty, and I never will win any beauty contests (I can’t argue with you on that one)
12). The doctor needed a urine, stool, and semen sample, so I just left him my underwear (oh, boy, what a bad joke!)
13). You couldn’t hit a beach ball with a banjo! You couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn! (comments made to me both as a youth when pitching or batting on little league baseball teams, and while playing golf with him as a child and as an adult)
14). When I get to Heaven, I am going to have a talk with the “Old Man” about my wife dying before me. Wives are supposed to outlive the husbands. Either I should have died first or we should have died at the same time (Maybe mom finished her work before you did. In what form would you have wanted a simultaneous death, like in a murder/suicide, or in a car wreck?)
15). Son will we all meet again in heaven? (are you sure that you really want to hang out with the same crowd for eternity?)
16). Heaven is not ready for me yet, and Hell is afraid that I will take it over, so that is why I am still here (maybe you are still here to provide a few more lessons for the living. I know that I sure am getting a crash course!).
17). I am in no hurry to die. Nobody I know has ever come back from the dead and told me what a great time that they are having after death. (yes, and wayward religions continue to capitalize on that mortal fear, ignore the fact that heaven is here and now, and do not effectively teach us how to die to ourselves and our fears and suffering to experience heaven in advance of bodily death)
18). I provided care for you all of those years when you were young, now its your turn to take care of this old man (I should have read the contract more carefully before my birth!)
19). You should always be best friends with your sister. Never let anything get in the way of that friendship, because she will find a way to love you to your death, as you should love her as well (Well, Dad, you sure have shown commitment to both your brother and your sister, especially over the last twenty years. Somehow you all endeared yourselves to each other. Thank you for a success in that aspect of family love, and overcoming the chaos created by your parent’s relationship. I think that Pam and I are on a good course right now)
And on and on it could go. My dad was a great story teller, and fountainhead of wisdom, one-liners, humor, self and other deprecation, and sarcasm.
Life might have been infinitely different for me had I become a father.
My “children” would probably have exiled me long ago.
My step-children, and their spouses, have often let me know through the years how little value that I have to them.
I sure love our old cat Sassy, and our crows, ducks, jays, herons, hummingbirds, woodpeckers, bats, deer, rabbits, and finches.
I do not qualify as a human father, yet I have found my place in the natural world.
We always fit in, and are accepted, where Love’s ordering principles rule.
It is now much easier for me to see where it is not.
Thanks for being a major part of my life’s lesson plans, Dad!
