Today, April 30, 2007, my father would have turned sixty-nine. Apart from the overt references this number implies, I have always liked it -- I like things that have double entrendres attached to them. They are funny. But the number itself is also just interesting -- any number that is the same upside-down as upside-up is interesting to me. Similarly, I like words that read the same backwards as forwards (palindromes for those of you who are wondering). And the reason I mention these things, is that I acquired this taste for words and numbers from my father.
The turn of a phrase is a beautiful thing. And Dad loved to hear them, read them, and speak them. Being the eldest son in my family I think I got to see a side of my father that my siblings may not have had the opportunity to see. As an adult we did things together, including vacationed together (taking my wife and my mother along), participated in an investment club, served on Boy Scout Committees together, provided the music for the Priesthood Meetings on Sunday, and we communicated as equals (or more appropriately as those who respect the experiences and opinions of each other).
But to the point of today's musing, my father showed me the humor in words, numbers and people. We secretely smiled during the Sunday organ postlude music, noting that the beautiful "hymn" being played was in fact an operatic aria sung to a tree (see "Xerxes"). There is a line in a movie that to the question, "Do you have any money?" the responder states, "We have sufficient for our needs." On many levels, this is a very profound answer and one we should strive to understand and apply to our lives (either as an incentive to provide for more or as an attitude of being able to need less). But the humor is that the responder has no money at all, yet the response is accurate as he has no need for any.
I found myself seeing the beauty of the phrase turn in the Bible yesterday in Sunday School. The subject was the passage in Matthew where the Savior states, "Thou are Peter and upon this rock I will establish my church". The verse is widely misunderstood to mean that Jesus established His church on Peter -- and to an extent that interpretation is the basis for the authority of many churches today. But not only do they not understand the true meaning of the verse (the rock He references is the testimony that Jesus is the Christ, which is obtained by the Spirit -- thus, the rock of revelation about the bedrock of the Savior's calling), but in so missing the point, they miss the beauty of the turn of the phrase. Christ is employing a literary tool in order to make a point in a clever manner. It is marvelous. Yet, few people see it. If you look you will see that Christ does this with the language constantly (it helps to note the Hebrew as sometimes the sublties are unfortunately lost in the translation to English). He is a poet -- a title not often used in reference to Jesus. But if He provided for great poets in former and latter days, wouldn't He Himself also appreciate a good phrase? Where do you think all of those Psalms and Proverbs come from? If not God, whom?
I believe that my father taught me that if your addition of a series of numbers is off by a multiple of nine, you have mistakenly transposed one of the numbers in the series (all transpositions are divisible by nine). Granted, I surpassed his math education when I was a sophmore in high school, but that didn't mean he had nothing more to teach me. And more to the point, he and I could enjoy the equations and machinations together. He used to subscribe to "Games" magazine and while I wasn't always able to solve the problems, we had fun thinking about them together.
This pattern of spending time together and learning things started very early in my life. I can remember sitting on his lap reading the TV Guide with him when I was five-years-old. He would giggle that I could pronounce words like "emergency" and "psycologist" just fine, but would stumble on "broad" (I said "board") or "loading zone" (I said "landing zone" which made for an interesting visual image at the entrance of that particular building). I didn't have dyslexia -- my eyes were just reading too fast for my tongue.
He introduced me to Science Fiction and James Bond and so many other worlds. Someday, when my time to cross into the next life comes, I fully expect him to be there to help introduce me to that new world as well.
So, Happy Birthday, Father. You are sixty-nine -- let the giggling commence. Tomorrow is my birthday (I was born the day after my father's 29th birthday -- so you can do the math and realize why birthdays are on my mind). I'm not sure what I will do to celebrate -- maybe I should find a good book to read to my son.
