What Goes Around Comes Around

Jimmy Buffett says, “We are the people our parents warned us about.” Working and living from home with my whole family in the house reminded me of what it was like when I was growing up and my father was working in his home office.

My father would wake up really early and go to his warehouse (our family has been in the office supply business for three generations) to pack orders, then go see customers during the afternoon, and write the orders up at night at a large desk located upstairs and next to my bedroom. After dinner I was in my room playing the bass (loudly) and my father was doing paperwork a few feet away. My father never once complained.

Now I’m the one working at night and my boys are the noisy ones. I’m honoring my late father by letting them live their lives (loudly) and making do the best I can. I have a feeling I will miss the noise when they go off to college. The house will be quiet, too quiet.