This is my dad:
Today, my dad celebrates 5 years of recovering since experiencing a very serious stroke on February 12, 2009. I can't hang out with him today because of a serious ice storm. However, I want to dedicate my words to him today.
There are many sides to my father, but if I had to sum him up in a word, it would be "wizard".
Here are some reasons I would choose that word to describe this wonderful man.
1. He's probably the wisest person I've ever met. Ask him anything, especially about the way people work, and he can tell you. He's been a doctor of both the mind and body. He has a PhD in psychology and long had a private practice. Even though he has been retired from practice for awhile, people still come to him all the time with their problems. I come to him with my problems. And we count on him to listen, but also to care, and even more, to have ideas about what to do. He's a sage, which would have been Merlin's role to King Arthur, by the way.
2. Those who know him also know that they can count on my dad for absolutely zero BS tolerance. He will tell you exactly what he thinks, which might even get him in trouble sometimes, but that's just what wizards do. Like Gandalf, he doesn't have time for that nonsense. "Yes, Bilbo, you might get burned by a dragon, but it's a quest. You need a quest in your life!"
3.He's also a physical healer. My dad is a very skilled neuromuscular therapist, which means that if something in your body is causing you to hurt and it is nerve/muscle related at all, he can help that. I get awful headaches, and he always can help them. I don't know anyone else who can do what he does. It's almost...magic.
4. He has had a beard for my whole life. He also used to smoke a pipe. He also is fond of/looks fantastic in hats. I think enough has been said here.
5. He always has a plan. Like Dumbledore, when he sends Harry off to look for horcruxes alone or has Snape take the fall for his muder...or like Gandalf, who's always taking off on "errands" in The Lord of the Rings....dad has usually got irons in the fire that you just don't know about. A lot of times this involves helping people or restoring justice anonymously through his numerous people networks. I guess this is also a little like the Godfather, but more benevolent.
6. He loves sci-fi and fantasy. Both my parents taught me to be nerdy from a young age, but I think dad was slightly more responsible. I used to watch Star Trek with him. He took me to see Men in Black and the 5th Element, which got him in big trouble. We went to see the X-men movies together. He introduced me to a love of Celtic things. He got me into Arthurian legend and we are probably the only people who will watch the Sci-Fi's channels "Merlin" miniseries with each other. Dad's love of magic and science fiction is, of course, a wizard necessity.
7. He's in touch with nature. My dad loves the outdoors, camping and hiking. I grew up doing a lot of that, with a big group of people I knew as "the tribe." As years have passed and health problems have arisen among "the tribe", there has been less camping than any of us would have liked. However, it still happens once in a blue moon. This love of nature is another thing that was passed to me at a young age: the sights and sounds of the wild mountains and forest live in my bloodstream. I know they do for dad, too. We both have hammocks in our cars at this very moment. Dad still loves to get out in the woods be in nature.
8. Foresight. Perhaps because of his great knowledge of people, or maybe because of a touch of "The Sight," dad has a knack for predicting what might happen. Also, like a boyscout, he's always prepared.
9. This one is more serious, and I'm sorry, but it has to be mentioned to give any kind of understanding about my dad.You know how Frodo feels that Gandalf can fix anything? Or Harry thinks that Dumbledore always has something else up his sleeve? And then something happens, and they can't fix it. They acknowledge they can't beat it, like when Gandalf lets go in the Mines of Moria, allowing the others to run to safety, and you are kind of left with a stunned "What?" but also a new kind of awe...because they had you believing nothing was impossible, and then they show you something new and powerful in the very vunerability they've just exposed.
I've often felt that my dad could do anything, solve any problem. Obviously, no one can do that-we live in an imperfect world. However, when problems have arisen that cannot be fixed, I've always been so awed by and respectful of my dad's reaction. When he had his stroke, when mom got sick, he was as unable to change those things as anyone else. However, he tried as hard as he could to make the best choices in those times, and he was unbelievably strong. The way my dad loved my mom in the face of death was unlike anything I've ever seen. It was a beautiful picture of what love should be, and it's haunted my thoughts. You can't hang on, you can't fix everything. For the man who can fix most things to accept that, and yet be vulnerable enough to love as hard as he could anyway? Mind-blowing.
10. Which leads me to the tenth reason my dad is a wizard. Wizards are fighters. My dad has had more things happen to him in his life than 55 years typically dishes out, both good and bad. Like all wizards, he has worn many hats, been so many different "people," in his life. As he says of himself "post-stroke"..."I used to be somebody...now I'm somebody else." I don't know who he is going to be next, (but sometimes I am afraid it is going to be a "Duck Dynasty" kind of deal). He's been beaten down, again and again, but he keeps getting back up, slightly different, slightly wiser each time, always surprising me with his amazing strength. That's what wizards do.
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