#1 "Expectations" - Olivia

 

 So here's the deal.

To put it simply, perhaps too simply, my father and I are different.

You can pocket that for your own interpretation. 

Different can hold a handful of meanings.  For example, it can mean 'separate', as in "On two different occasions, I swear I caught my father voluntarily listening to Miley Cyrus." 

It can also mean 'new', or 'changed'. Such as, "Once my mom wanted to do something different for dinner, so she purchased pounds and pounds and pounds of dry meat substitute TVP."  (That will probably show up in some post relating to horrific childhood memories... )

Additionally, different can mean 'unusual' or tactful for 'downright weird'.  "Why yes, Dad, your gypsy vest certainly is ... different*."

Different, as far as I'm concerned, is an just an observation describing things unalike.  My dad and I will probably slip just as comfortably into any of the aforementioned definitions throughout the life of this blog, but we think it is our distinct differences that will make this blog interesting.

I mean, if you were to create a Venn diagram of things my father and I believe, you may be surprised by what would straddle our different circles. But frankly, I think you'd be even more surprised by what we don't share.

 We don't share a love for Disney World, for example.

Despite my sincerest efforts in describing the magnitude and glory that is Disney World: the castles, the rides, the sheer attention to detail, the magic, he won't bite.  He's just not impressed.  He doesn't believe in it.

And really, that's ok.

At the end of the day, I don't need my dad to love, appreciate, or believe in everything I do.  There are better reasons to love someone.

There are many things my father and I may never see eye to eye on, but it certainly makes things interesting, doesn't it? 

Different is fine by me.  Besides, as much as it separates us, as long as we're both different, we've both got something to share.  And we hope you'll be open to both of us. 

So I say, on with this!  Let the games begin!  Let's get this show on the road, let's lock and load, and let's rock and roll. 


And for my fathers generation:  Now for something completely different. 

* When talking to my sister, I've learned to interpret "That's different" as shorthand for "Yikes.  Under what conditions, however bleak, were you persuaded into thinking that shirt/food item/band/purchase/cosmetic surgery/pet choice was a good idea?"

#1 "Expectations" -- Don

Welcome to our public conversation.

I'm just going to go ahead and put this out there: I love my daughter Olivia deeply, but we do not agree on some really important stuff.  I blame her mother.  (I keed, I keed).  It's okay.  The truth is it's not all that important to me that Olivia agree with me on everything or even most things -- even the really fundamental, nitty gritty stuff like religion, relationships, and the correct placement of condiments on sandwiches.  As long as I get my chance to have my say and she's still willing to speak to me afterwards, I guess I'm willing to settle for that.  And since she's over 21, and I can no longer threaten to ground her, I reckon I have no choice but to settle for that.

Although -- to be perfectly honest -- there's plenty of subjects in which we're more or less in complete accord (I like many of her favorite new bands), it's our differences that drive our passions and challenge our capacity for tolerance.  A few years ago, Olivia decided to go to college in Idaho, and I was dead set against it.  Not only was the school 1500 miles away, but it was a church college and I have a long history of being hostile to anything officially sanctioned by her church (Olivia is a steadfast Mormon and I'm a diehard agnostic).  After much cajoling and soul-searching (at least on my part), we came to a quiet entente: she would go to BYUI and I would do my best not to complain unceasingly about it.  How well that's worked out is an excellent example of how our world-views are more likely to collide than converge.

Olivia and I have decided that over the coming year we would try and maintain a blog in order to share our perspectives on a little bit of everything from the superficial to the sublime.  While neither one of us expects to be "the voice of our generation," I expect that the differences in our perspectives will offer some interesting and thought-provoking reading. At the very least, this blog will give us both an outlet to ramble on about the wide variety of topics that we've selected (see the "Coming Attractions" link at the top of the page) and may offer our readers a chance to see how an aging, married, 50-something, agnostic hillbilly with a Ph.D can keep a frank and loving relationship with his 20-something, single, sincerely LDS, working-enough-to-get-by, adventure-seeking daughter.