Being Dad

Rachel was getting very fed up with me giving her suggestions on the way to the festival this morning; I was only trying to give her reminders about putting lots of energy into her performance etc, but she had clearly had enough of me going on at her. I had a sudden moment of insight, and explained to her that because I'm her Dad I really want to do the best I can for her, but since I can't sing and I can't dance all I can do is try to give advice, even though she may not want it and almost certainly doesn't need it.

I guess that's the fate of Dads: we watch our children getting more and more capable and talented, and suddenly realise that they've gone past the point where we can do anything useful to help. Watching and supporting is great, but Dads long to feel useful... and sometimes it's hard to let go of that.

Question

Why is it that despite practically everyone naturally doing things left to right, like reading, photocopiers almost all go right to left (paper goes in at the right and comes out at the left)? Why that way round? Why?

Switchfoot's 'This Is Home'

From the soundtrack to Prince Caspian

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Sacre Coeur, Paris...

Sacre Coeur, Paris...

I'm just playing around with Flock and found that looking at "interestingness" for the Flickr feed in the media bar gave me options when I clicked on photos to blog them. So I clicked on this picture and lo and behold, it appears as a blog post. I think that I like Flock.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

St Leonards

Found this on Flickr
Just in case you don't know what it's supposed to look like, there are proper pictures here and here.

Lost generation

Very clever. Keep watching past the halfway mark.

How big would you like it?

Well, it amused me...

Faryl Smith

I usually dislike everything to do with Britain's Got Talent, just because it's the worst kind of car crash TV. But this 12 year old came on last Saturday and I reacted exactly the same way as the audience - just sat still and stared. Amazing.

"That is the war on terror" by Roy Zimmerman

A short manifesto

In the spirit of the previous post, here's an attempt at a list of reminders for myself.

1. Life is what you get to do, not what you've got to do.
2. That thing you're looking for... it's not in the fridge. No, it's not in the cupboard either.
3. Just because you feel stupid doesn't mean you are stupid.
4. The only way to be able to love is to be able to be loved.
5. Your ability or willingness to do a task will not magically increase if you leave it until tomorrow.
6. Work is rarely its own reward; laziness usually is.
7. You don't have a right to be right.
8. The shorter-term your thinking, the more time you will lose in the long term.
9. You will never have no distractions.
10. If you think you've got problems, you should try finding solutions.
    

My life as a to-do list

Image via WikipediaA week or so ago I was talking about all the things I had to do for the rest of that day (I think it was last time we had lunch at church) and I finished up with "and then I've got to go to the quiz", which was met with a general sarcastic response along the lines of "Oh gosh, that must be awful, fancy having to do that." Of course, that was the right thing to say to my rather silly remark - there are probably few things more tiresome than someone telling you how much they have to do, especially when the things they "have" to do are in fact pleasure and leisure - but I have been thinking since about the extent to which (a) I bore people by repeatedly telling them how much I have to do and (b) I actually think of my life as a long list of things I have to get done. To anybody who reads this who has had (a) inflicted on them: sorry, I will try and be more mindful of this in future; (b), on the other hand, is altogether more serious and scary. Am I really going through life looking at the wrong end of a never-ending list of stuff that has to get done? Do I really think of time with my family as just another thing that has to be done, so that I can then get on with something else? The answer to this one is, no, I don't - but I do often spend time doing stuff I enjoy while simultaneously thnking of the other things that I have to do that need doing. What's scary is that if my life is a list, I will never ever get to the end, will never tick everything off and feel pleased with myself for a job well done. Not today or tomorrow or next week, not when I retire or on my deathbed; I will never get to the end of the list, because the list isn't real, it's just a way of looking at life that actually robs me of opportunities for joy and leaves me overwhelmed with the crushing weight of twenty or thirty or forty years of endless bloody stuff to do.