Programming note: I'll be in Europe next week with my family, so no Splash next week! We'll be back to regularly scheduled Splashing on 12/01/22.
Dada
Growing up often feels like discovering pieces of your parents in yourself and seeing yourself in your parents more and more. It’s my dad’s birthday as I write this, and I feel like we’ve slowly been becoming more similar over the years, as I move towards being more reclusive and interested in spirituality, and he has been walking around the house more and more with headphones in his ears.
There are so many things I’ve learned from my dad over the years — from riding my bike and driving cars, to the basis of nearly my entire spiritual and religious education. These were the lessons he meant to teach. Beyond that, there were the things that I picked up from him, watching as children do. The lessons came calmly and in stories that I heard every night before I went to sleep. I heard every detail of the Hindu epics of the Mahabharata and Ramayana in his voice. Later, when I would read comic books about various Hindu stories, the pictures and stories felt less vivid than the stories that he would tell.
I doubt I could ever tell a story in the same way that he does, but I continue to copy pieces from him, intentionally or not. My own humor is entirely a mashup of the jokes that my parents’ have always told growing up, and I’ve often taken to trying to making worse dad jokes than even my own father. Sarcasm drips from half of the things I say, something that may or may not be genetic.
Throughout my whole life, I can count the number of times I ever saw him angry on one hand. We share a temperament in this way, never showing much emotion, regardless of circumstance. As I learn more about my emotionality and how it rarely comes to the surface, I feel like I learn more about my dad and why he is the way that he is.
It’s incredible to go from seeing your parents as your entire world to seeing them as fallible human beings to once again being in awe of them, for being able to overcome all that they did and be the people that they are. The pieces that seemed to be incomprehensible slowly gain meaning and become aspects worth loving — another entry on an endless list. Happy Birthday Dada!
Drops of the Week
PLAYLIST - november 22 - lots of Drake, plus and eclectic mix of music I was into a few years ago
ARTICLE - "The Most Precious Resource is Agency" by Simon Sarris - interesting read about how modern childhood doesn't offer agency to children
POEM - "Primer for the Nuclear Age" by Rita Dove - At the edge of the mariner’s / map is written: “Beyond / this point lie Monsters.”
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Adieu,
Nikhil