Remembering my Dad on Thanksgiving.
Juan The Pirate, who early dreamed of becoming a sailor in the Mexican Navy...
...or, not.
Because our Family Secret is that much of what he pontificated about every night at the dinner table during the 50's, 60's and 70's was, well, embellished; and all the stories told about his Mexican childhood were probably more a grand fiction than a grand survivors tale (did Mexico even have a Navy in the 1930's?).
Grander still was that bigger-than-life place in the world that my dear Dad occupied in his own mind. Yet, despite that overbearingness, we all endured his ego well enough; and mostly recall his memory with fondness all these years later.
As I ponder and plan the purposes and blessings of the Thanksgiving Feast, I keep harkening back to the promise that was "Sir Juan The Great." Were his purposes on earth mostly met? Did he accomplish what he set out to do?
What did God put him here to do?
Purpose One was to discipline and hone his gifts in the chemistry lab. Pegged to be an MD, he reconsidered the plan once he transferred from his home in central Mexico to two Catholic colleges here in the United States, 1945.
He came to love the intellectual rigor of the research lab, and before too long, he was all about the study of entomology, pesticides, herbicides and plants; patents, published papers, a stint in Sittingbourne, England, and a dream-come-true retirement all folded together to make a keen and tidy all-American life.
And that's all well and good (if you're not a Rachel Carson fan), but what remained once he was cremated and gone?
There was his man-cave study (oh, goodness, NO TV for Juan); his mountains of slides and photos; a collection of sporty British hats and sweaters; a faith tradition that mostly meant church on Sunday bunches of assorted prayer cards in drawers and closets; a few patents and even a published paper I found on the web that was so technical I became bleary eyed within the first paragraph.
But there was one more element to Juan The Great. Purpose Two was to reproduce a faith in his progeny.
What legacy remains for his six offspring? Would the proof be in 13 grandkids? Are they picking up the mantle of faith he lived? Uh, not really.
A tidy stack of monthly Magnificat devotionals only materialized in those final years, when he knew his imminent departure would come from a heart condition he would not treat; but this was long after the grandkids were grown. Nevertheless, LIFE with GOD got suddenly real in those latter days.
The Magnificat is put out by a slice of Roman Catholicism which actually subscribes to genuine Jesus talk. Born Again Faith teachings. RELATIONSHIP with CHRIST assumptions. It might even teach ideas about how Christ alone saves you rather than depending wholly on a life well-enough lived, generous donations or a well funded patronage. That time honored reliance upon any old priest or parish or pope to get the job done is mostly missing from The Magnificat, and Dad relished each one.
That is what finally inspired me about Sir Juan before he died: the way he allowed God to humble him during the last five years or so of his life on earth.
IF ONLY HE'D KNOWN SOONER THE DIFFERENCE CHRIST MAKES on one's temperament, time, talent and treasure.
THINK what a difference his grand kids might now be making.
I once told him that when he is gone, I would tell people what a GREAT man he was, and I meant it. The earlier disrespect I had for him that so marred my childhood, took an about-face in those final years; because he truly did become great, no longer as a figment of his own ego-filled imagination, or by virtue of his rags to riches life story, but because he lived out a vibrant RELATIONSHIP with His Lord and Saviour by repenting of sin, forgiving others, and faithfully reading the Scriptures; all of it leading to authentic life-change...
... by the Grace of God.
