a conversation {father & son}

“Son tell me about your day,” inquiringly the father asked.

“Well, it was grand,” the son stated plainly in reply. “I got to play the part of a plumber, climbing under the house and work in dirty septic water.”

“Son, what else would you have been doing today? Have you had to work on plumbing before? You could always have paid someone to do it for you, but then what would you have learned?”

“I know, I shouldn’t really complain about it. I’m blessed to even have the house I do. It definitely wasn’t that bad—I just pray that hopefully my patch job holds…You know it was really interesting being under the house. It’s kind of like logging into the terminal under root in linux. There is definitely something very rich in seeing the underside workings of a house. The house is old, and it is easy to forget how true that is. That is until you climb underneath and see the fragility of it all. Hopefully I won’t have too many sleepless night worrying about the floor collapsing.”

“Ha ha. I understand what your saying, except maybe those comments about tree roots and lynxes—are you sure you didn’t get too much of that glue in your lungs? Back when I was younger I was just about more used to seeing a house without a wall or floor than seeing the home where one lives. I definitely have some fond memories of my carpenter days. I’m sure glad that they’re just memories though; I hated all the splinters. It is easy to forget the structures which hold everything together, that is until something breaks. Then you find yourself crawling under the floor and you definitely don’t forget it then—when you are under a house, all you have is the structural beams holding tons of house & home above your head.”

“It is nice to be able to take care of problems. It is like it’s the justification for your manhood. I can call myself a man and actually believe it.”

“Well I’m glad to hear that; I know it is hard being a man, especially when that man is a husband & father also. It seems to me, for what it’s worth, that you are doing good so far. Don’t worry about the screw ups, we all do them. It not about that, it’s about how you act the moment after that moment.”

“Yeah, I know…but I also know I wouldn’t be able to be do it without your help either though…Thanks.”

“Thanks son, you’ll learn soon enough that all the work is just preparation for that. Now let’s go inside before this gets too serious.”