My indescribably beautiful daughter, who is going to be turning 7 in ten days, wanted to know if I thought she was funny-looking.
When I asked her what she meant, she told me that we should look at her class picture hanging on the wall. (Of the 21 kids in her class, 2 are Asian American, 4 are Latino, and 15 are European American.)
She told me that she was funny-looking because of her eyes — her sparkling, intelligent eyes, filled with endless wonder.
I wanted to argue with her. I wanted to prove to her with indisputable logic how exactly the opposite of funny-looking she truly is.
But then I remembered how little it helped all those years ago when my parents tried, in their own way, to do the same thing when I came home in tears.
So instead of talking, I listened.
Lord knows I’ve got a long way to go in becoming the father my daughter deserves.
But something deep inside of me tells me that the greatest gift a parent can give a child, or for that matter any human being can give to another human being, is to shut up and listen, really listen, to what they have to say.
Happy holidays…
