Monday Musing: Dad

Yesterday would have been my dad's 87th birthday. Although every member of my family looks young for his/her age---yes, I got carded tonight at the ripe age of 30-something---this is in fact a picture that was taken some time ago. To add to the confusion, my family is so classically fashionable, that this is a timeless image. Or it could be that late 60's fashion has remained quite chic. Or it could be that my dad wore this jacket in 1968 and still wore it nearly forty years later. In his case, this was likely the explanation. Although somewhat naturally hip, he was a European after all, my dad couldn't be bothered with shopping and he wore most of his clothes until they had holes in them. In fact he never understood, although he accepted, the materialistic needs of his "American children."

While I would have never understood the appeal of this simplicity as a teenager, in the face of a world that is drowning in consumption and its own waste, I appreciate it more and more everyday. My mother being a depression era baby herself, I grew up with a reservedness that seems almost unheard of nowadays. Such modesty didn't equal dowdiness. And anyone who has met my mother, wouldn't accuse her of that. Less is more, after all.