A Great Sense of Direction

Growing up on a farm in Iowa helped my father with many things, not the least of which was his good old fashioned common sense. But something that I always found remarkable was his ability to recognize which direction he was looking, pointing, or driving. He would refer to the sides of the house as the north side or the east side, while my siblings and I typically used terms like the backside or the side next to the driveway. It undoubtedly came from his innate sense of observation that he, along with his farmer brethren, seem to come by "environmentally". It often has been said that farmers would make the best weathermen, but according to my grandfather, they were the world's biggest gamblers too. Fortunately, it had little to do with Las Vegas but that they were bargaining with Mother Nature to supply them with the resources for a successful harvest.

As I sit on my first transatlantic flight, I find myself thinking of yet another learning opportunity that my father shared with us as kids. He compared the direct route across the Atlantic, or as he'd say, "as the crow flys", versus the great circle route that the pilots would be using. I remember it now, he'd grab the globe, which was always available, and he'd take his finger and ask us the question, "which do you think is shorter?" Naturally, we fell right into his trap, but then he'd explain why. He and my mother frequently used this type of forum to extend our education outside the classroom. We had more maps and atlases around the house than Christopher Columbus most certainly would have had, and no doubt, our trip across the pond is going to be a whole lot faster too.

Yes, my parents found a number of ways to share their insights and knowledge of the world with us when we were younger, and perhaps that is the their true legacy. Although my eyes are getting heavy, my imagination won't let me relax enough to sleep. I am anticipating seeing 2 of my 3 brothers, 2 sisters-in-laws, and 2 of my nieces in a planned rendezvous in Ireland. How cool is that? Ireland in March, that has the potential to be very cool indeed. More importantly however, that legacy has one more key element, and that is the real sense of family. In this case, part way around the world, we remain very well connected, and there is no way we could get lost having that as our compass!