I've often said that what I am is largely inherited. From my mother I got the X chromosome, that made me X-tra sensitive to life and the world around me. I pick up on people's moods and frame of mind. And it must show somehow because total strangers will tell me their problems in the checkout lines.  I feel like a mood magnet sometimes!  People just seem to feel safe telling me what's going on their lives.

And from my dad, I inherited the WHY chromosome. He spent his life as a machinist, but he's always figuring out how things work and why they stop working. Most people would say he doesn't have much education because he didn't finish ninth grade.  But Dad's the most well-read person I've ever known.  There are few topics he hasn't read about or discussed with someone.  I could never run a topic past him that he hadn't heard of, and that has amazed me all my life.  Because of Dad's insatiable desire to learn new things, I have inherited this burning desire to know "why" about everything.

He's had so many health challenges in recent years, and often mentions that he knows "the clock is ticking" now that he's 72.  And although diabetes has robbed him of the vision to keep reading as he did, he is forever on the History Channel or Discovery, learning about what's going on in the world around him and what's been discovered about the past.  Dad's been my hero for a long time.

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Reminds me of my Dad
written by Rick Parrish, March 27, 2008

Thanks, Rose. You reminded me of my Dad and it brought tears to my eyes. He always knew how to fix just about anything and he always had a trick. He was a welder and a mechanic and he could figure out a fabrication problem in his head or with a square and dividers that it would take me a half a page of Trig to figure out.

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