Celebrating My Dead Dad’s Birthday

Traveling to the town where he was born to see what I might find…

This post started much differently than what you are about to read. I was going to write about how the weeks leading up to my late Dad’s birthday brought a downward spiral that, while not quite as dark as the seminal Nine Inch Nails album from 1994, left my mind sounding almost as distorted.

I was going to write about how my faith and my taste in art had equipped me to look for the small points of light in dark spaces. My favorite verse is II Corinthians 4:18 and my favorite movie is No Country for Old Men.

But then I went on a weekend trip by myself to the small Illinois town where my Dad was born. When we say something was life-changing, we often mean that is was a big, stark turning point. The more accurate description of this weekend is that it was like putting a filter on a camera. The reality of what is in the camera’s field of vision hasn’t changed, but the perspective certainly has.

Today, my Dad would have turned 66. Would have…