+- Radix Fidem (https://radixfidem.org)
+-- Forum: Discussion (https://radixfidem.org/forum-8.html)
+--- Forum: Miscellaneous (https://radixfidem.org/forum-11.html)
+--- Thread: More on Joy! (/thread-51.html)
More on Joy! - IainH - 03-03-2018
Growing up my heroes were John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson and the ultimate in cool Steve McQueen. Overriding them all was my Dad. He was a health and fitness freak, a cyclist and a distance runner a good decade before it became the "thing" to do, he also was an avid hiker and backpacker. He hiked across the breadth of the Scottish highlands in eight days and seven nights, in an event called the Ultimate Challenge on nine occasions, he left me a stack of certificates of the plethora of races he ran along about four pounds of medals. He maintained this until he developed hip problems in his sixties, eventually he had a hip replaced but, he still yet retained a fitness routine until cancer eventually broke him down and took him from us at, what should have been, for him, the young age of 81.
He was not a particularly religious man, he rather frowned on organized religion as full of hokum and hucksters and although he did not receive much in the way of formal education he possessed a keen mind, curiosity and a ,sometimes crude, wit and wisdom that defied his slow hillbilly drawl. He believed a man ought to walk like Jesus not just yak about him. He grew up during the great depression raised by a sweet loving mother and an angry young father who spared neither rod nor Bible in the old time Hellfire Methodist tradition which no longer exists. In spite of this, according to his peers, he retained an effervescence of spirit that was contagious and infected all who knew him. He was my protector while I was growing up, in that when in his presence, my mother played the role of dutiful wife and loving mother, while she may have been the former, she was far from the latter. I shall speak no more of her other than to say she is receiving her reward in the slow crumbling of her sick mind under the stewardship of my elder brother 3500 miles and an ocean away from me. I did my part juggling her psychoses for two and a half years after my father died. Enough said.
In short, I give God the glory for my joy but, it's root is found in the man who, I'm convinced is a giant in Heaven, gave me his unconditional love my Pop. AFC Harold D Helton, USAF Korea Veteran. F86 jet engine mechanic, who once told me "a surefire cure for a hangover is to sit in the cockpit of a F86 and breathe pure oxygen for ten minutes". My Dad was never near the combat zone but, worked on many an engine that did and if you ask any pilot they will tell you it was their ground crews that got them there and back. Our Government may be involved some downright Godless endeavors but the lives they put in harms way are our sons and daughters and need all the prayers we can send them.
RE: More on Joy! - Ed Hurst - 03-03-2018
Excellent tribute to your Dad, Iain.
RE: More on Joy! - IainH - 03-03-2018
(03-03-2018, 11:18 AM)Ed Hurst Wrote: Excellent tribute to your Dad, Iain.Thanks Ed, I believe the man lived a lot closer to the truth than he got credit for because he didn't go to Church until the end of his life. I can remember one time, years before he got sick, I went to see him and he was sitting on stump working on one of his carvings "son, I believe God works on a man like I do these carvin's, He starts with a lump of wood and cuts away what ain't fit until He has somthin' worth paintin' and puttin' varnish on for the world to see". At the time I dismissed it because it didn't fit in any of my little boxes. It was only after he was gone that I remembered this and many others that I came to realize that I needed to catch up to him and not the other way around. He was on his own heart led path guided by the Lord long before I knew it existed and he may well have not been aware of it himself but all the evidence is plain as day to me now. Mysterious ways.
RE: More on Joy! - forrealone - 03-03-2018
I love the way you share your times and memories of your dad, Iain. I lost mine at age 73 back in '97. He was in the army air corps WWII and Korea. He was a good man and I learned a lot of good stuff from him. We miss our dads, dont we?
RE: More on Joy! - IainH - 03-03-2018
(03-03-2018, 01:58 PM)forrealone Wrote: I love the way you share your times and memories of your dad, Iain. I lost mine at age 73 back in '97. He was in the army air corps WWII and Korea. He was a good man and I learned a lot of good stuff from him. We miss our dads, dont we?Every day.
RE: More on Joy! - jaybreak - 03-04-2018
I keep reading the title of this post as "Moron Joy!" This how juvenile my mind works when it comes to reading.
I don't miss my dad, since he's still alive! Though a few states away. We still go there every summer to see him and mom. Great post, nonetheless.