A tribute to my father, Lloyd D. Bowerman, who would have been 102 years old today, July 12th, 2024

7/12/24

My Teacher,

The musing of an old, slow learner.

A tribute to my father, Lloyd D. Bowerman, who would have been 102 years old today, July 12th, 2024  

I think one of the greatest gifts my father ever gave me was that he thought, “everyone can teach you something”, and that phrase peppered his father/son talks my whole life.  He came from an impoverished background and retained a special affection for the poor and undereducated, people you normally don’t consider having anything of value to teach “us”.

That thought has stuck with me and I’ve tried to practice it, sometimes more successfully than others.  He used everyday examples like; A middle aged coal miner, disabled with black lung, can’t teach you how to maximize the depreciation of a fixed asset, but he can tell you how to stack your firewood so it blows clear of snowdrifts in the wintertime and isn’t sitting in mud in the springtime.  A father, holding three jobs, can give you pointers on how to feed three kids and two adults on about the same amount of cash as your weekly Starbucks tab.  Both of these examples were used by my father, I  only modified them slightly.

Although somewhat estranged from my father, I always admired how he found a teachable moment in almost every situation.  Even the negative ones. He was fond of reminding me  “failure should teach us more than our successes” which may reflect my slowness at catching my stride in life, I dunno.

As I sit here and think about my father and his advice, I think of the great truths my father taught using just common everyday experiences; “If you gittim’ talkin’, they’ll tell you all, and if they git you to talkin’, you’ll spill everything too”.  “If you’re going into a serious discussion, remember the cerebral brain engages 50% less when you're talking than when you're listening”.  “If your life is a mess, rather than discuss it at the coffee shop, first go down to the creek, sit on a stump and have a long, serious, honest discussion with yourself.” 

I think the following are my favs.

“People from all over the world are all the same really, they’re just different…”, “Never believe a very  good man can’t go bad or that a very bad man can’t ever become good”.  “Help somebody out, don’t just sit there, offer before being asked.”   

“Teach”.  *

Kahlil Gibran, a Lebanese poet once wrote, “I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers.”  I think my dad would be in full agreement.

The Grateful son,

bobb

*If your father taught you something that you’ve set your compass by for all your life, share that message.  It’ll make the world just a little better off.