This phrase has been made famous by the Lord of the Rings books and more recently the movies. I thought of this phrase as I was driving back from my mom’s house on Labor Day.
My dad sold insurance for several years when I was a kid. His boss was an incredible person and always went the extra mile for his ‘guys’. Probably ten years ago, long after my dad stopped selling insurance, my folks and Duane were going out for dinner, I told my mom to tell Duane how I admired how he treated his agents and this certainly influenced how I supervise people.
One of the things Duane did was give gold rings, paid for out of his own pocket, to agents who sold a certain amount of insurance. As a child, once I learned this, I thought my dad should get one of those rings as I thought it would be pretty cool. So for the next year I would check in with dad, pester him is probably a better word, about his progress on getting the ring. I think I started to really annoy him and he wanted to get his ring just so I would shut up.
That year, dad not only sold enough insurance to get his ring, but also sold enough to get a free trip to Tucson Arizona.
At the annual awards banquet, dad gave a speech where he talked about his quest to get the ring and that his son had turned into a ‘ring monster’, (just like Gollum). When dad was to receive his ring, Duane gave it to me and I presented it to dad. I can remember feeling very strange as everyone was standing and clapping. A kid doesn’t always realize the significance of what’s happening around him.
Not that it mattered to me when I received it but it was always understood that since I was the ring monster, the ring should eventually be worn on my finger. I was never in any kind of a rush to wear it as rings have a tendency to fall off my hand.
My dad has lung cancer, I wrote about it in a previous blog. One lung is cancer free but the other one is not. He will begin a regime of 10 straight days of radiation and then will probably have chemotherapy. He found this out this last Friday (I got to mom and dads on Saturday). While I was there I noticed his energy level was so low.
On Sunday, dad asked me to go for a drive. When dad says something like this, it is usually to try to give me $20 so the kids can get a ‘treat’ on the drive home. We drove in his convertible to the golf course, a place where we spent a lot of time when I was a child. He parked the car overlooking the first hole. We sit there for a minute talking about nothing really significant and out of no where he sets the ring on my leg and says, “Here, I want to give this to you now, before I die.” I immediately feel tears welling up in my eyes and I told him that, “I didn’t want the ring now as it seems like…”
He interrupts me and says, “That I’m going to die? Of course I’m going to die Mitchell (he always says Mitchell when he is serious) but not for a few years.” After a few minutes of and wiping away several tears, I slip the ring in my pocket. “You wear it if you want to but don’t lose it,” he says to me. I always planned on wearing it but thought it kind of strange if I put the ring on right there.
As we drive through the gravel parking lot of the golf course, heading home, dad says, “I can still kick your ass you know,”
Without missing a beat I say “Fat g%#damn chance of that happening.” I hear my dad laugh out loud and I know that we will all be ok.
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