Advice From Dad

A few tips and helps from your dear old Dad.

I seem to have learned a lot of things the hard way, and I often wish my parents had explained certain things to me, instead of leaving me to find out by mistake and accident how things worked. The following is a summary of a few of the useful things I have learned over the years. You are welcome to read or not read on . . . .

The shape of life

Life is shaped like a diamond, as in the diagram. We begin at the base, (a dot) when we are born, and after a short time of total ignorance, we start to view life as an infinite expanse of unlimited possibilities. We dream, (and do not consider it impossible) of being anything - conqueror of Everest, colonist on a distant planet, Prime Minister, Master pianist, Tourer of the whole world, Great writer, Olympic champion, Genius, King .

Gods and sodas

God the Father 16

God the Father 04

. .) and then, as we grow older we realise that the expanding lines of life reach a limit (corners). Now we have reached a point of youthful realism.

From that point on, the lines begin to come together again. We find that Time is not our friend. We realise that to be good at anything we have to work, practise and concentrate our energy. This means that whenever we choose to one thing, we will, by default be choosing not to do many other things.

death

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time of old age corner

birth

At an older age we suddenly realise that life is actually very short, and that the lines of our potential to explore and accomplish and learn are beginning to converge to a dot. We also realise that those 'old' people we grew up with are actually...