True

For about 20 of my 27 years, I've totally thought my dad was insane. Crazy. A monster. Paranoid. But the oddest thing started happening about 2 or 3 years ago, I realized that he was none of those things, I realized he was right.

Its weird though, how our perceptions of people can change. Kenneth Burke talked about terministic screens and I liken this to his theory. We move through life and experience things (events, people, language, images) and we try to make sense of them as best we can, but as we continue to move and note changes, our perceptions and understandings change and we try our best to make meaning.

I think (or rather I hope) that I'm learning that one of the best ways to make meaning is to allow the meaning to make itself. I tend to over-analyze almost everything and I think that's just the rhetorician in me. At times, we can't allow ourselves to do that, sometimes it takes the letting go in order to discover the meaning.

One thing my dad has always taught us is to keep our enemies close (yes, that is in relation to the Godfather), but there is truth in that statement. I've learned, and most often the hard way, that if you don't keep a close watch on those around you, you end up being hurt. I think some of these life lessons will become increasingly more important now that I'm preparing myself to be a mom, I want to pass along wisdom to my daughter.

Just minus the paranoia.