Sandi's Blog: Technology's Blessing: My Daddy's Blog

I want to take a moment to share with you the great gift bestowed upon me by Technology's Blessing. Tonight, I got my first lesson in Blogs!

I must admit, I am a bit behind times and sadly have not yet purchased as much as a palm pilot. What the heck is an I-Pod, anyway? Moments ago, I accessed my Daddy's Blog. (The Gog's Blog). Amazingly, there he was... Out in the open...FINALLY....His thoughts, opinions, and expressions, ranging from his avid support of free speech to his views of various myths and deep love of music. Much of which I have regrettably not known until a few moments ago. The Gog's Blog is a cherished gift to me: technology has miraculously opened the window into my daddy's soul.

My grandfather, a retired postman died when I was in my teens. I learned one profound fact about him: he loved the Atlanta Braves. I knew he cried every night before he went to bed, mourning the loss of his wife, who died many years before from diabetes. In my memories, I can still see him sitting on the edge of his bed, grasping the picture of his beloved Lucky (Lucille). He spoke to the framed photograph intimately, privately, lovingly. He told her how he could not bear to live another day without her. He could not go on. He lived without her for over fifteen years. Then, it happened and he passed. A generous, purely kind man who touched the lives of hundreds of strangers. One after the other, strangers stood at the podium, in front of the shell of what he once was. His Spirit had left hurriedly in pursuit to join his precious Lucky in eternity.

At the funeral, a bright-eyed young woman appeared through the crowd, choked back tears, weeping into the microphone sharing how he changed her life. Once, after he finished dinner at a local restaurant, he discovered his young waitress miscounted his change, giving him twenty cents too much. He immediately returned to the restaurant to return the money. He could have simply driven home, with an extra twenty cents in his pocket. What could twenty cents do for him? It would prevent him from sleeping with a clear conscience. What about the waitress? Twenty cents would prevent her till from balancing at the end of her shift... Twenty cents would have her fired. Who would feed her children?! How would she feed herself?

Alone I sat, a stranger in foreign surroundings, in a fog, contemplating life's strange events and embarrassed by my ignorance, by the chances I missed; solemnly listening to story after story about Elwood Long. I extended my hand and eagerly stepped forward hoping to meet this amazingly honest, true and generous man; A man I never knew. John Gog, my daddy, a man whom I have lived with for most of my life, has been an astounding mystery to many, including me. A brilliant, Hungarian stranger I have yearned to meet.. And, tonight, here, through the gift of technology, and a couple of keystrokes, I have gained security clearance to his classified thoughts, his mind, his opinions, his life. This gift has enabled me to realize a dream. I have the profound opportunity to meet this genius now, during our lives, and not have to wait until I am sitting at his funeral, listening to strangers' stories.