I Heard From Dad Today
b'Thanks for dropping in here on my podcast. I like having your company. I think I heard from my dad today. Dad has been playing keyboards with Beethoven\'s Big Band in heaven for quite a few years now. But I woke up this morning with a song called The Leader of the Band running around in my head. You know how that works...a song just starts going around and around for no apparent reason. \\n\\tI\'m sitting here in my big, manly, comfortable black leather poppa chair now, but I just came back from driving down to the supermarket to get some flowers for my Lady Wonder Wench, and over to the post office to mail a note to my brother Jeff. On the way back, the radio station was playing the same song that was going around in my head. Dan Folgelberg was singing, "He gave to me a gift I know I never can repay. A quiet man of music, denied a simpler fate, he tried to be a soldier once, but his music wouldn\'t wait." That was Dad. He was a musician, a teacher, and a man...in the finest sense of the word. \\n\\tThere\'s a story about him in my book, Staying Happy Healthy And Hot. Part of it goes like this: "Dad was my only hero. He was a teacher. Most heroes are teachers in one way or another. The things he taught were simple but profound. He said things like \\u2018There\'s a big difference between soft and gentle. It takes real strength to be gentle\', and \\u2018there\'s a time for pulling yourself together, and a time for letting yourself go. He also said, \\u2018Be a man.\' And there wasn\'t any doubt about what he meant when he said that."'