Harmony, hold tight when you find it
I am still working on cutting out a daily(my hope) block of time to write down something for this blog. I would like to keep it steady. The idea is to try to work together the disparate things that interest me together into a weekly stew that some might find tasty and perhaps worthwhile.
I worked in radio back in high school and a little bit afterwards and have always been a fan of the ability of good radio, like good writing, to make you think. My Dad was an NPR listener and so am I. His favorite piece was a weekly interview each Friday that the old host of Morning Edition did with Red Barber. Red was a Florida native like my Dad and was at one time the voice of the Dodgers. My Dad was a Dodgers fan and he passed it onto me. Players that I would never see play were alive to me via his recollections. His favorites were Duke Snider and Sandy Koufax. Duke was the star of the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers, the only Brooklyn team to ever win the World Series and Koufax was a fireballing and wild rookie. Before the days of cable, ESPN and every game played being on television it was radio that brought sports home to you. Red Barber made those Dodgers come alive though the airwaves to kids across the nation. Mel Allen from Alabama did the same for the Yankees and he would be joined by Barber to give the Bronx Bombers a Hall of Fame crew. Barber helped bring along his eventual replacement in the young redhead from Boston, Vin Scully. Red is gone but Vin is sill alive and and up through last season he brought Dodgers baseball to the fans. He called the games working alone and no one could touch his skill.
To be able to know and love your Dad is truly a blessing. I share his name and my likes mirror many of his. One sad thing about my Dad is that he was married three times. I say that not to criticize or demonize him but just to state a fact. He never had harmony with another. I know a couple who make many of the same mistakes that my parents once made and it both worries me for them and humbles me that Tsengel and I have harmony together. It is so easy to focus on me and not us. I was too young to fully comprehend my parents' divorce but was alive and aware of the slow dissolution of his next two. I was a witness and could offer advice but could not stop what happened.
Statistics tell us that the children of divorce are more likely to go down the same path. Thankfully my sister and I are going against that tide. We have celebrated our 13th anniversary while my sister and brother-in-law hit number twenty-eight in February. That is a milestone my parents never hit.
I worked in radio back in high school and a little bit afterwards and have always been a fan of the ability of good radio, like good writing, to make you think. My Dad was an NPR listener and so am I. His favorite piece was a weekly interview each Friday that the old host of Morning Edition did with Red Barber. Red was a Florida native like my Dad and was at one time the voice of the Dodgers. My Dad was a Dodgers fan and he passed it onto me. Players that I would never see play were alive to me via his recollections. His favorites were Duke Snider and Sandy Koufax. Duke was the star of the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers, the only Brooklyn team to ever win the World Series and Koufax was a fireballing and wild rookie. Before the days of cable, ESPN and every game played being on television it was radio that brought sports home to you. Red Barber made those Dodgers come alive though the airwaves to kids across the nation. Mel Allen from Alabama did the same for the Yankees and he would be joined by Barber to give the Bronx Bombers a Hall of Fame crew. Barber helped bring along his eventual replacement in the young redhead from Boston, Vin Scully. Red is gone but Vin is sill alive and and up through last season he brought Dodgers baseball to the fans. He called the games working alone and no one could touch his skill.
To be able to know and love your Dad is truly a blessing. I share his name and my likes mirror many of his. One sad thing about my Dad is that he was married three times. I say that not to criticize or demonize him but just to state a fact. He never had harmony with another. I know a couple who make many of the same mistakes that my parents once made and it both worries me for them and humbles me that Tsengel and I have harmony together. It is so easy to focus on me and not us. I was too young to fully comprehend my parents' divorce but was alive and aware of the slow dissolution of his next two. I was a witness and could offer advice but could not stop what happened.
Statistics tell us that the children of divorce are more likely to go down the same path. Thankfully my sister and I are going against that tide. We have celebrated our 13th anniversary while my sister and brother-in-law hit number twenty-eight in February. That is a milestone my parents never hit.
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