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Thu Aug 28 2008

Columns

Harvey Wasserman

For Father: Dad's business
June 17, 2005

This piece is excerpted for Father's Day from Harvey Wasserman's A GLIMPSE OF THE BIG LIGHT: LOSING PARENTS, FINDING SPIRIT, available from http://harveywasserman.com.

My Dad
a businessman
was
in his way
a real revolutionary
fighting the Big Guys
the way we fought the Pentagon
to end that damn war.

He always supported me
in those efforts
and when I came
back to Columbus
and to his business
and saw what he
really did
I was equally proud.

We did have our differences
mostly about computers
which he understood
a shade less than I.

We also argued
over finance and strategy
he liked to pick fights
from time to time
to test the limits
of my mettle.

But by and large
for ten full years
we got along
grew together
activist and businessman.

My mom kept the books
my sister sold gifts
somehow
it worked.

Today
is the day
my father
will pass away.

The shoe guys
are offering
such a deal
a special buy-out
a hot number discounted.

I'm a little groggy
from attending
both Dad and Mom
in the hospital.

So Dad's friend Marty
our capable shoe manager
does the purchase.
We take quite a few pair
at a pretty good price.

Later
the Big Guy screws us
delivers the bad sizes
the sixers and sevens
twelves and thirteens
but the ones that really sell
the eights through elevens
they pull out of the shipments
and sell to someone else
for an extra buck or two
leaving us empty-handed
and our customers angry.

It's just the kind of duplicity
both my parents
hated beyond measure.

In all the years I knew him
I never once heard
anyone
question my father's
ethics or honesty
openness or compassion.

What more can one say about a man?

--
This piece is excerpted for Father's Day from Harvey Wasserman's A GLIMPSE OF THE BIG LIGHT: LOSING PARENTS, FINDING SPIRIT, available from http://harveywasserman.com.

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