Fatherly Advice

In our family there is a tradition regarding passing on a little piece of fatherly advice before a child goes off to college. This advice is generally passed down from male to male in the family.

I am certain that there is also a counterpart that is passed down from mother to daughter but neither Brokerbelle or ImpQueen or Princessbelle will tell me what it is. Since I have not been initiated into the mysteries of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, I presume I will never find out. I have wondered if it has something to do with backseat driving. But I presume it is not worth my time guessing because it is a secret shared from lady to lady equivalent to the most sacred masonic secrets. And I am of the unwashed and uninitiated. But I will not be bitter for the males on the HarleyDad side of the family have their advice which I will shortly reveal to the world.

Like all advice and like the Good Book, it is easy to say-but hard to do.

Well there are two pieces of advice.

My father passed these on to me and we know that they were passed on to him by his father.

My father said to me: "Son, be like the wise old crow following after the cow and picking at the cow pies. Know how to separate the seeds from the cow dung." As I have gone through life, this advice has shown itself invaluable. Due to my profession, I have found myself inundated in horse s_ _ _. In fact I regularly swim in it. But I try to keep my head above it and look for the seeds. I have had it flung at me by both friends and foes. I have seen it hit the fan and go over the walls. What great advice!

Now the second piece of advice is more mysterious. It goes like this. "Now son stay away from fast horses and slow women or is that slow horses and fast women?" Yes that is the advice. I am not sure that the men of my family have ever been correctly directed here and the confusion in the advice has been passed down from generation to generation. Each generation must wrestle with the life issue if they are to stay away from fast women or slow women. The delimmas are obvious. Slow women are easier to catch-but then your off spring are not as bright. On the other hand, fast women are harder to catch because they are fast. The horse part does not help either. Why would someone want to stay away from fast horses, those are the ones which win races and slow horses lose races.

Well, HarleyDad like his forefathers is mightily confused. I don't think I had better ask Brokerbelle about this. The advice is after all supposed to be secret.

HarleyDad