I am the Present

A Gift Guide for Dad

Recently I had the enormous pleasure of cleaning out and organizing my parents garage and just let me say without any candor that you would not believe the sheer amount of stuff the typical adult human will hang onto over the course of a lifetime. Just wait- your turn will come, and this duty truly can be a pleasure if you let it. I came to understand my parents a little better this way, something I truly appreciate as I age and begin to build a relationship with my own children.

This walk down memory lane has taught me many, many things and It has also continued to give me some much needed insight into the future and a greater understanding of the past.

So I have taken my lessons and condensed them down, I have written some rules, my personal guide if you will, and I think that I will call it my trash pickers guide to buying gifts. (dads’ edition).

My dad was a marine. He was also a fan of wrestling and one hell of a hunter. He was the craziest asshole I’ve ever met,- or so some have said, and he was also the hardest man in the world to buy gifts for- to do anything for really, but we always tried our darndest to make him proud! When we picked gifts for him we always tried to get the best, keeping in my his hobbies and interests the best that young kids could.

What do you buy the smartest man you know? How do you prove that you’re listening when he’s speaking? Every year it was the same thing, we spent hours pouring over idea after idea wanting only the best idea, the one that would blow him away, only to come up with nothing—a trinket maybe, a funny T-shirt or a quirky hat, but nothing of value, nothing that could represent his worth in our eyes. Nothing that showed him just how important he really was, and each year that failure weighed heavy on our minds when we handed over our gifts.

While cleaning out my parents garage there were many many treasures to be found, boxes and bags filled with memories and entire corners of Christmas Decor. Among these mountains of hidden treasures there was a lesson to be found. In one dusty corner storage box there was a shoe box of full toy cars, each one in perfect just out of box shape, well cared for and preserved.

There were 4 foam wrestlers electronic fishing games and poker, ties that had never been worn, fishing tackle and trucker caps, books and hand made gifts all neatly piled, kept as keepsakes from my youth a tribute of a fathers love.

My father kept our gifts, every single one, from the foam wrestlers- yes that’s plural! To toy cars and ties and fishing gear and everything in between.

Much to my amusement he treated each gift with such loving care that most still looked brand new- even though they were of no actual use to him so while your scouring the shops and scrolling the internet please keep in mind that your dads favorite gift is you! Whatever you pick, no matter what trinket or tool you buy it could not make up for time well spent.

So go visit your father now, make it his Christmas gift if you must and continue to visit often, as often as possible, spend quality time and make all the memories that you possibly can. Laugh and sing and dance, do all the silly things that he asks of you and don’t put it off-because when all is said and done in this life your presence matters more than your presents!!!