Dr. Laura,
While filling out a Father's Day card for my dad, which talked about the wisdom a father gives, got me thinking about a particular incident that now, later in life, was a great life lesson.
I was 16 years old and I'd had a "hard day" at school, the kind of day in which nothing went right. My family was having supper at the kitchen table like we always did and my mom was grilling me about something that had happened, adding to the level of my frustration. Then for some unknown reason I snapped and told her, "Will you just shut up!" It was so surreal. I knew better and it was like I was watching the words come out of my mouth in slow motion...and couldn't stop them.
The room went completely silent, and before my fork could hit the plate, my dad had already made it around the table, grabbed me by my shirt, shoved me across the kitchen, and had me pressed against the wall with my shirt balled up in his fist underneath my chin so tight I couldn't lower my jaw and could only look him in the eye. I was no stranger to my dad's discipline, but he was not a violent man, and I have to admit that it was probably deserved. So I'm pressed against the wall, my dad staring at me for what seemed like lifetimes, and in a very slow and stern voice he says to me: "Let me make this perfectly clear, I LOVED HER FIRST. Are we clear?" I gave the only acceptable and safe answer I could... "Yes, sir".
I learned 2 things that day: the amount of love a man owes his wife, even if it means defending his wife's honor to his own son. And any thoughts I may have ever had that I could "take my old man" was ludicrous.
Thank you Dad for giving me the blocks to become a great man, thank you to my wife for providing the mortar to bind those blocks, and thank you, Dr Laura, for providing the instruction book on how to put it all together.
Jeff
