A Dad story ....

I realized that it has certainly been a while! since I've shared a Dad story on my blog here ... so to begin this story, let me first quote a Biblical passage:

Isaiah 40:1-11

Comfort, give comfort to my people,
says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her
that her service is at an end,
her guilt is expiated;
Indeed, she has received from the hand of the LORD
double for all her sins.
A voice cries out:
In the desert prepare the way of the LORD!
Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!
Every valley shall be filled in,
every mountain and hill shall be made low;
The rugged land shall be made a plain,

When my parents purchased there suburban home, there was one design flaw that my mother just couldn't accept:  the backyard came with a little lawn ... and then a gigantic hill!  The neighbor to the left of us had such a hill, that rose nearly straight upwards in such a way that was fascinating for us kids but backbreaking for adults who attempted to terrace it! ... As I grew-up, I realized - hmmm, they have the hill ... and the subsequent houses going down that way also have hills (altho none as large) ... why don't we???  And so my Dad told me this story:

My mother took one look at the hill - one look at my father - waved her hand in dismissal, and said, "Get rid of it, Artie."  She had complete confidence that even tho he didn't work in construction - didn't even have his handyman tools he later came to own - that *somehow* he would do just as she requested.  He would figure it all out!  

This story, to me, is what I always looked for in a partner ... and what so many times I was heartbreakingly disappointed to find out I didn't have:  someone you could present a challenge to, and, without any further intervention on your part, would find some way to make that happen .....

My father noticed a guy with a bulldozer working several blocks away.  Now .. this was the late 50s, altho I dare say today, in my own life, this would have significant economic incentive to me, too!  ... Dad walked over there, waving a $20 bill that immediately got the guy's attention.  "Hey, pal, can you flatten a hill for me?"  

Sure!  No problem!  Lead the way, sir!

And the next time my mother was looking out her kitchen window, she saw exactly what she wanted:  a nice flat backyard :)