A couple of days ago was my dad's birthday and since then I've been thinking about what I learned from him.
Because of my dad I have an eclectic taste in music, I have everything from Eminem to Carrie Underwood on my iPod. As a kid we drove thousands of miles up and down highway 395 always listening to something. I remember singing along to John Denver, Linda Ronstadt, Carly Simon, Elton John, Supertramp, Barbra Streisand and Pink Floyd.
I think I learned to see beauty in everything from my dad. He is an amazing photographer and had his own shop/studio when we lived in Mammoth. He took pictures of ski races for both Mammoth and June mountain, did portraits and weddings and lots of landscapes. I can't tell you how many times he'd see something forming in the sky and yell to grab the cameras because we were heading to shoot the sunset. I have fond memories of watching the film develop in the darkroom.
I think the most important thing I learned from my dad was to think for myself. Growing up with two households for any kid is at the very least difficult, but when the two households are extremely different it's even more-so. My dad's philosophy was question everything, don't take my word for it, make your own mistakes (which I did and plenty of them!). One of his favorite sayings is "everyone has a constitutional right to be stupid". We often disagree on things but hey, we agree to disagree.
I love my dad and hope he had a great time celebrating his birthday!
Until next time, Ciao.
