A Great Man

My dad has always been my hero. I remember the time my parents went away on holidays. I was in high school at the time. It was the first time they had left me alone and in charge. I thought I was mature enough to have a small party. One of my friends for some strange reason decided he was going to hide his case of beer under my bed. 3 things wrong with that. 1) He never told me. 2) He forgot to take it with him when he left.....and.... 3) My mom found it.
I was in big big trouble. My dad sat me down in my bedroom and told me what they had found. Totally busted. But instead of giving me a lecture and telling me about how bad I was, my Dad told me one of what would turn out to be the first of many stories about his misspent youth. About the local police officer in Nanaimo BC who, after years of cuffing my dad up the backside of his head, told him that the free ride was over. He had a choice. The Airforce or jail. He picked the Airforce.
After he finished the story he got up,patted me on my head and told me to thank my friend for the case of beer. He walked out of my room, but before he closed the door he looked at me and said "No more parties. Right?"
I was so incredibly amazed by him. I was speachless and so incredibly grateful. This guy could have grounded me for life, but instead of telling me how much I let my Mom down....we gave you responsibility and you blew it....we'll never be able to trust you again....you're going to grow up and rob banks....my Dad chose to let me in on his not so perfect life. In his own quiet way he showed me that people screw up, that it's okay to make mistakes. I didn't even need to explain myself.
Years later I realized that my Dad screwed up and got caught just like me when he was young all the time
My Dad was able to look at his past and realize he grew up pretty okay. My Dad looked at me and saw that I would grow up pretty okay too. My Dad is a great man.