Misty-Eyed

If of all words of tongue and pen,
The saddest are, "It might have been,"
More sad are these we daily see:
"It is, but hadn't ought to be."
--- Bret Harte, American fictionist and poet (It's not the WWE wrestler, stoopid!)

For my parents, who would have celebrated their forty-ninth wedding anniversary today. I wonder how our lives would have turned out had my father lived longer.

In "Dune," the Lady Jessica Atreides speaks of the hard days as an acolyte and of her hate of the Reverend Mother Gaius Mohiam. She, however, cannot help but love her teachers, her tormentors.

For some time, I hated what my father represented and his control over our lives. Now that I am older, I am glad to have gained some perspective. But it was impossible not to have loved him. How I wish I could generate that kind of devotion that he did. If I could only do half as much, I would be a well-loved and when I pass, a deeply-mourned man.


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This is also a misty-eyed memorial for my friend Miggy Baluyut, who passed on two years ago earlier this month. Oh, what could he have been!