Stand Your Ground

And Other Lessons From My Father

My father, outside the barracks in Korea circa 1953

To this day, people tell me that I’m just like my father. I suppose in many ways I am. I’ve been a daddy’s girl my entire life and my father was my first and in some ways, most unlikely teacher.

At first glance, you may wonder what a man with a grade 4 education who was brought up poor during the Great Depression could teach a precocious little girl several decades later. A whole lot, that’s what.

I was prompted to write this after reading Diana C.’s article about what her father taught her. I encourage you to give it a read:

What a Daughter Needs From her Father

She concludes her story with a challenge to examine what our fathers have taught us. Well, Diana, challenge accepted!

1. Stand Your Ground:
What my father lacked in education he more than made up for in sheer stubbornness. He had a very keen sense of right and wrong and once his mind was set, there was no budging him. It didn’t matter who opposed him, a coworker, a superior, it could be the Queen (more on her later), he wouldn’t back down.