JUST A DAD

Saturday, July 30, 2016

JUST A DAD

JUST A DAD
By
Francis William Bessler
Laramie, Wyoming
6/22/2016

As a Father's Day gift, my youngest daughter, Melissa, sent me a T-shirt that says "Best Dad Ever." I must admit that is a nice sentiment - and I thank Melissa for thinking so, but I prefer to think of myself as "just a Dad." I do not think there is any such thing as the "best" of anything - be it a "best Dad" or a "best President" or a "best friend" or anything. I do not consider life in terms of "best" in any manner.

I'm reminded of a story called JUST PLAIN DAVID that my Dad read to his kids when we were young. I do not know who the author was, but it was a story of an orphan boy by the name of David who was adopted by an elderly couple. David did not know his last name - or the last name of his adoptive parents. So when he was asked his name, he said he was David. Now and then someone would ask, David who? David would reply "just plain David."

I am not sure why that little story has stayed with me all my life, but it has. There was so much in that statement that told me everything about who we all are. We are really all "just plain David." What a wonderful thought!

What does that tell me? It tells me all kids are alike - and all adults are alike. We are all the same in a wonderful equality of "just being human," but just being human is as good as it gets - or can get. I am not really a "Francis Bessler." I am really only a "Francis." Attach any last name whatever to my first name of Francis, and it would not change me one iota, know what I mean?

Furthermore, Melissa, I am not a "best" Dad. I am only a Dad. I am "just a Dad." I am not better than any other Dad - and no other Dad is better than I am. At least that is how I see me - and all Dads - and all Moms - and all Kids - and all Races. We are all simply "just human beings" - and I do believe if we realized that and focused on it every day and every hour and every minute, we would not be so divided as "mere human beings" to consider one of us better than another. We are not "mere human beings." We are royalty - just as every living being is royalty simply because every living thing is blessed of, in, and by a Wonderful Equally Present Divinity that some of us call "God."

Dad may have read other stories to us when we were kids, but the one I remember is JUST PLAIN DAVID. It must have said as much to Dad as it did to us - or at least, to me - or why else would he have chosen it? Dad's name was Leo Peter Bessler, but I am sure he considered himself a "just plain Leo," recognizing that a Leo is all there had to be in him. He did not need "saved" from some outside force to be himself. He only needed to realize that all blessed things are equal. He was only a Leo. I am only a Francis; and all of us are "just plain David."

In 1990, I found myself pondering life as I sat looking out at the vast Atlantic Ocean from a beach at Savannah, Georgia. I wrote a song I called "I Once Knew A Man." It was about my father - and me - and anyone who might realize that it is sufficient to be a first name without a last name and to realize one is a prince or a princess wherever one does go. Let me finish this little article with that song; and let us all realize that, in truth, Infinity and Infinity in all makes us all equal - and equally worthy and Divine. Superlatives are neither necessary nor truthful. We are all "just plain David."

Or so I Believe!

I ONCE KNEW A MAN

I once knew a man who walked upon this land - and oh, what a man he was to me. I once knew a man who was as simple as he could be and he taught me to be, like he. I once knew a man who took me in his hands and taught me that all souls should be free; but now that man has gone, though his soul lingers on, and memories of him come and go like the tide of a sea.

Yes, Memories of him go on, like ducks on a moonlit pond; and they comfort me in times of need. He was like a flower on a hill, a gentle breeze through a windowsill. He was, and always will, be to me poetry.

I once knew a man who walked upon this land - and oh, what a light he has been. I once knew a man who was good for those he loved - and he guided me to seek to understand. I once knew a man who struggled all his life to be an example to the children that he had; and now I’m proud to say,  
his life was no waste; for I still love today – the man I call Dad. Yes, I still love today the man I call Dad.