An ABD friend of mine recently consulted her father (who has a fifth grade level of education) about completing her dissertation. She was delighted when he gave her exactly the answer that she needed to hear. I recognized that I too, consult my father on everything under the sun, safe in the knowledge that he will have my answers.
When I was about seven or eight, my cousin had a set of encyclopedias that I noticed he used to consult all the time to do his homework, and I begged my father to buy a set for my sister and I also. I'll never forget what he said in response, which turned out to be the truest thing, "But I'm a walking encyclopedia! What more do you need?" And he really is. I believe it now as much as I did when I was a little girl. What he lacks in the form of any college degree is more than made up for by his lifetime of voracious reading of pretty much anything he could get his hands on, (including Scientific American at one time.) As a result, he can pontificate on any given subject for at least five minutes, minimum.
Now, a girl can sing the praises of her father, you think...but, really, dad's putting me to shame on Scrabulous, and as StyleyGeek can attest, I'm not an easily crushed opponent. Styley and I have been forced to conclude, after 4 bingos between us in a single game, that we are both geniuses. So that would make my dad a super-genius, but I'm sure he would have a better word for it than that!
Maybe I should start posting family gush warnings on my blogposts, but I haven't been home for the holidays, as you might have guessed, I've been diligently getting my dissertation draft to my committee. Which happened days after my advisor received the draft. He said, and I quote, "I'm giving you the green light to send this to your committee." I tried to sound all cool, and say, "Oh, I'm really happy to hear that." But inside I was screaming yay!yay!yay!
Anyway, after one post about my brother, and now another about my dad...maybe, hopefully, by the end of January if schedules co-operate, its time to go home for a dissertation defense?
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