Reflections on my 70th Birthday… A number of years ago one of my children—which one is clouded by lost memories of time—gave me a scripted coffee mug for a non-descript thirty-something birthday. It read “To the Best Dad in the World.” I was duly impressed since there were 7,151,235,341 people in the world, twenty percent ((a little over 1.47 billion) I figured were Dads. This euphoria lasted perhaps a day until I went to pick up a prescription at the drug store. A lovely little girl ahead of me on line was purchasing the exact same mug which she had taken from a rack that had about twenty mugs that also read, “To the Best Dad in the World.” I didn’t even know that child, so she must be buying it for her Dad. Certainly there must be a mug she could buy that said “To the Second Best Dad in the World,” or “To the Two Hundred and Thirty-Seven Million, Six Hundred and Forty-Two Thousand, Three hundred and Six Best Dad in the World.” but none were to be found. I then began to doubt myself. Perhaps I wasn’t the best Dad my children could have. Perhaps the little girl’s father gave her a dollar allowance and I only gave my children a quarter. Perhaps he was the “Best” because he took his children on a Disneyland vacation and my children only experienced Crystal Caverns in Pennsylvania. But I could change…I could really be the “Best Dad in the World.” Rejected and depressed I left the pharmacy traveling down Changebridge Road. As I neared the Montville border, I stopped at a red traffic light and saw a large yellow and green sign that shouted out, “Welcome to Montville, The Best Community in New Jersey.” The sign was erected in the median directly across the street from the Polish Deli that sold “the Best Pierogies in Morris County.” It was then I realized “The Best” is a matter of viewing life. Certainly the deli owner believed he made the “Best” pierogi, and I’m sure Mayor Eckhard thought Montville was the “Best” community, and to my children…well at least one of them…I was the Best Dad in the world. But does one have to be the “Best?” Is “Good Dad” good enough? Is a good husband sufficient? Is a “good brother” more than any sibling can expect? Is a good uncle or friend something to be proud of? I thought of my Dad who passed away in my arms on my 29th birthday. He was a gentle man, a hard worker, a man of few but sincere words, guided in his life by his strong beliefs that he didn’t impose on others. He was not part of any competition to be the best dad in the world. He strived to be a good man, a goal he worked at all his 72 years. So waiting for the light to change at that Montville border, my maturity and my trek to my seventieth birthday began. I would try in life to be a good person. For in being good, there is always room for improvement. There is space to grow. There is always a better tomorrow. But then today, on my 70th birthday, I received a Facebook birthday message from my daughter Kate. It was addressed to “The Best Dad in the World.” Vincent C. Martorano November 1, 2013
Posted on: Sat, 02 Nov 2013 02:33:22 +0000
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