Hero Worship

My father is a good man. Period. That sentence in itself could be its own blog post, but i suppose i should elaborate. I received a bunch of flowers at work today and do you know who they were from ? My father. What did the note say ? Simply " Just a reminder of how proud i am of my girls ".Not only did he send a bunch of flowers with this note to me, but also to my mother, sister, sister-in-law and he had a posey to give to his granddaughter too.
Why you ask ? Just because.We didnt all have a mass birthday and it wasnt some kind of Female Type Relation Appreciation Day - he sent us those flowers because thats the kind of man he is. A good man. Its not that giving people flowers that makes him a good man - its that he cared enough, that he thinks enough of us to show that we are appreciated. Because he knows that we would all appreciate the gesture.
He is a good man because as much as he is stubborn and argumentative and smart-alecky ( he is a Taurus after all - its in his nature ) he sucks it up and apologises when he is wrong ( which, admittedly, isnt often ). He is honest and heartfelt when he needs to be - and he knows when those times are. When he speaks from the heart you know that they arent just token words - he chooses his words and his timing very carefully, he doesnt just bandy about throwaway " I love you "s.
He is a good man because he is a good father- and he attributes that to his children. It his belief that he is not a good father because of his own skills, but rather because we kids taught him to be. That the fact he has raised three , dare i say it, well-adjusted, " good " children is somehow a shared effort on our part. He is modest enough ( even though he probably shouldnt be ) to believe that sometimes, just sometimes, we taught him things too.
He is a good man because he has helped me become the good person that i am. No, he's not a so-called " hippie " like me - he doesnt believe in being overtly charitable, that humans everywhere are basically good, or that one day we could possibly change the world - but he has taught me patience; humility;strength of character and strength of will. He has raised me to be a woman of substance, and to know that i dont have to please everyone. He would as proud of me if i chose to be a taxi driver as if i were elected Prime Minister of Australia ( actually, he'd probably bag me out about that, but he'd be proud ).
Lastly, he is a good man - just because. Not always because of things he does, but the things he doesnt do. Not because he says all the right things, but sometimes because he doesnt say the wrong things. But mostly because he loves me, not because he has to, but because of who i am, and sometimes, in spite of who i am.
What more could a girl ask for ?