MY DAD THAT TAUGHT ME THE BASIC THINGS I KNOW

Those that encourage, provide the life

Those who are encouraged, live the life

He taught me without the noise of words

Without confusion of opinions, without ambition of honour

And without contention of arguments

He taught me to my cost

And I wish it may serve to make me more careful

And not increase my folly

Teachers provide the knowledge

They share with us how to get from here to there

They hand down to us the lessons learned from thousands of mistakes

Certain lessons may need to come through experience

But everything else can come through a good teacher

The term teacher applies to more than just school teachers

A teacher is anyone who effectively communicates knowledge

There are lots of good teachers in the world but many are overlooked

Some people spend their life looking for the wise man on the mountain top

And fail to see the wise man who live on the next door

When we look for teachers, we must keep in mind that things are not always as they seem

One of the best teachers known to me was my dad

He taught me about life, as well as the basic things I know

More than anything, he taught me how to learn from life

He showed me that there are valuable lessons everywhere

He definitely has his own idiosyncrasies

He sang songs no one could understand

He spent forever writing a book that has everything to do with his life

That book was never finished and certainly not published

Sadly, I think the manuscript was lost after he died

I thought he was a genius

But I heard the whispers that he was crazy

After he died, I read his will

And I found something else

Something that made me question the soundness of his mind

As is often the case people may think dad was crazy

Because they couldn’t understand what he was saying

He also scared a few people who did understand him

Because he talked about life

A subject that frightens many people

When mum asked me to write a tribute for my dad

I took my pen and paper and showed my scholarship

Little do I know I was saying good night to him

I hope to say a good morning too, but the opportunity never came anymore

Rest in most perfect of Peace, The Moore, I miss you