Preface to a letter to Dad

Preface:

Allow me to start with the fact that I love my parents a whole stinking lot, but from my perspective their sensibilities are comically on the conservative side.

Take for instance a story my dad received in an e-mail by one of his equally paranoid co-workers my of a person who burned to death in an electrical fire because something happened to an electrical outlet where charging his phone. My dads response was to immediately forward the e-mail to me. So when I didn't respond to his e-mail (I don't respond to many of his e-mails that are like this, because I consider it to be borderline spam mail), he calls and leaves a voicemail, and then a text message that urges me to listen to his voicemail that tells me to read the e-mail.

Thank you technology for giving my dad the powers of instant communication. I can't wait until a holographic version of my dad pops into my room uninhibited to tell me that I need to change my oil.

I have never quite seen eye to eye with my pop, I don't really think sons are supposed to and if they do, their parents probably perform back-flips when they get up in the morning... because they're life is that much easier. I haven't been a parent, but I've heard that it's every bit as much a learning experience as growing up through adolescence. And I realize that he was right about many of the things he's said in the past, like "having a better job in life and a savings will make your life easier," "you'll regret not learning Chinese" and "Not brushing your teeth in the morning is nasty."

But still there are things we differ on, like I'm telling him that I want to buy a car, and he's telling me that I should be somewhat economical. So after reviewing sonatas, accords, camry's, prius's I eventually set my eyes on the Kia Optima, a great choice that will last me a long time and make me happy. I submit my proposal to my dad and he shows me a picture of what looks like four seats on a moped and says "I think this is what you should be going for...when I was your age..." yadda yadda yadda.

I can laugh about it, because he's my dad, and I realize that the more mature I get, the more our perspectives align. Maybe we don't always see eye to eye on every matter, but we respect each other's choices no matter how foolish or nonsensical they may seem.

So the following letter was a response to my dad during an e-mail correspondence in which I'm trying to tell him that though the car payments may be a bit of a burden for me, I'm mature enough to handle them and expect great things from myself in the future.

The letter I wrote will be in the note I post after this. Yes, this post is in two parts, not for any particiular reason other than things that are in two parts have a certain je ne sais quois about them.