{"id":8127,"date":"2022-11-21T06:29:22","date_gmt":"2022-11-21T14:29:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/?p=8127"},"modified":"2022-11-21T06:29:22","modified_gmt":"2022-11-21T14:29:22","slug":"happy-91-birthday-dad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/meditations\/happy-91-birthday-dad\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy 91 Birthday Dad"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--themify_builder_content-->\n<div id=\"themify_builder_content-8127\" data-postid=\"8127\" class=\"themify_builder_content themify_builder_content-8127 themify_builder tf_clear\">\n    <\/div>\n<!--\/themify_builder_content-->\n\n\n<p>It was a cold Tuesday in November and Dad&#8217;s 91<sup>st<\/sup> birthday. I walked to the assisted living center to join him for breakfast and to celebrate his longevity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I carried with me three books of poetry, collections of Frost, Dickinson and Wordsworth, as gifts. I chose the children&#8217;s format for the volumes because they&#8217;d be easier for him to handle and read as his dexterity declines. The print was also bigger and they contained wonderful illustrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dad had rallied of late and was waiting for me in the dining room. He&#8217;d made it there on his own, which was quite an accomplishment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I told him \u201chappy birthday\u201d and presented the books. I started with Dickinson and began reading one. Dad listened and then recited two more Dickinson poems including one with the line: <em>The soul selects its own society \/ Then shuts the door<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our reading of Dickinson&#8217;s poetry prompted a discussion of her life and poetry. We debated the wisdom of \u201ctelling it slant\u201d as Emily advised in one poem. Dad told me a story about teaching career where he connected with a truculent teen via a Dickinson poem and I knew it was true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I presented the Wordsworth book next and dad recited \u201cI Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.\u201d We discussed the poem and the beauty and importance of noticing daffodils.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Next came the Frost book and we discussed our favorite Frost poems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After that, we talked about T.S. Eliot&#8217;s \u201cThe Waste Land\u201d and how neither one of us could get through it. I told him I&#8217;d just read a long essay commemorating the 100<sup>th<\/sup> anniversary of the poem and that perhaps I might try it again, but with no footnotes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Breakfast was served and the staff wished dad happy birthdays. So did some of the residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was a great morning together and great poetry was part of it.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was a cold Tuesday in November and Dad&#8217;s 91st birthday. I walked to the assisted living center to join him for breakfast and to celebrate his longevity. I carried with me three books of poetry, collections of Frost, Dickinson and Wordsworth, as gifts. I chose the children&#8217;s format for the volumes because they&#8217;d be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8128,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meditations","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8127"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8129,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8127\/revisions\/8129"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}