"Aris and Andrew it is with all the love in my heart I grant you both my blessing and that of my ancestors. May it be enough"
My daughter Aris's life is about to change. Her fiance is arriving home tonight on a flight from Afghanistan. I am going to be the man who walks her down the aisle fulfilling her childhood dream of getting married to prince charming. Has it really been that long?

As young man my first true love was Julie Oettle. As a young man my emotions were able to rule me and the tumultuous times I had were adventures. Julie and I broke up when she started dating another man. She claimed she didn't believe that I was true to her however I had been. Years later I ran into her by accident in Henderson Kentucky where once our loves had played. Our roles were reversed. I was happily married with a child Tatertot and she was unhappily divorced. That afternoon I spent playing in the pool with her 8 yr old son swimming but as evening approached she wanted me to stay. I couldn't break the bond I had in marriage. She said to me "the man I remember would have stayed".To that I was incredulous and told her "You never knew me at all". Perhaps it is true we find fault in others for what we are guilty of ourselves.I hope she found happiness. Her lack of faith in me was disheartening and heartbreaking at the time. I think in the end she saw the error but too late.

While at times I long for adventure from my misspent youth. I always turn to Becky and smile, realizing, I have come to the end of the rainbow.

The days of life may dim at times and new things always feel unsafe and insecure. But what we fear is infirmity. However Life is only good as long as it is changing and growing. Like the seasons we come and go and face the end like any man. So it is that when the time comes I'll conform to the masters plan

At the rate we are going we are sadly destined as a race for a dry, dusty, polluted, future. Devoid of beauty, music, children or hope!.I once had this posted however seemed to have misplaced it.

For many of the years of my life I wondered why I never felt at home when I traveled far and wide? Then as I aged it came to me. There is a reason birds fly back to where they were born and fish swim thousands of miles to spawn in the rivers they were born from. Who we are is as simple as where we came from. So I came home to start a family and pass that to my own children.

What makes the character of a man is the same thing that makes a horse want to win. Pride in oneself. And the ability to accept defeat. It is not as important that a man win as it is that he accept his performance and try his best. Of course anyone who lacks humility will be humbled by rocky shores of life. With or without his permission. This a poem to honor my fathers life. For he was one who always got back up when he fell. A fitting testament to the creed he learned from his own father and then passed down to me.