Born in Dallas, Texas, Dad attended SMU and joined the Navy during WWII. He later went to work for General Electric and began the life of travel I remember so well. We lived in Texas, where I was born, New York, New Jersey, Oklahoma, back to Texas, Pennsylvania, London, England and ended up in Vermont in 1960. Later Dad lived in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Morocco before retiring from GE.
I'm not going to try to tell his whole life story, but I want to say this: Dad became a world citizen over the course of his life, growing past the fairly narrow, conservative views he grew up with and embracing the universality of the human condition.
Dad was raised a Southern Baptist, spent his young adult life as a Unitarian and converted to Islam in his 60's. I am pretty sure he would agree with this statement by Thomas Jefferson: "He who steadily observes the moral precepts in which all religions concur, will never be questioned at the gates of heaven as to the dogmas in which they all differ."
As I learn from discussions with my sister Barbara, we all have different memories of growing up. I know my brothers Richard, Peter, Robbie and sisters, Barbara, Sarae and Miriam are thinking of Dad today. We are well-traveled, intellectually curious, socially involved people because of our mothers Connie and Najia, and our father Fred and all they gave us.
(P.S. - after Barbara read this post she said, "No wonder we are all good looking".)
1 comment:
Nice vignette. Didn't know his sister's name.
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