When people see me with my dad they always say, “Well, you’re just a chip off of the ol’ block, aren’t ya there, Marc?!?”. Clearly, my dad and I share many similar traits. Our heads are shaped the same. Our hair lines are basically the same (i.e. bald). Our profile…the same. I guess you could say that we have both been blessed with the same good looks and handsome disposition.

Naturally, then, I am always honored to hear that cliché recognizing the likeness which I’ve inherited from my Dad. And believe me, my sense of honor comes less from the physical likeness and more from the likeness of character, personality, and being. Here’s a list of great things about my Dad.

(1) When he was like 16 years old, he saved a dude’s life!! That’s right…he did something to stop someone from dying. I think the story goes that some guy was thrown out of a window next to a grocery story that my dad worked in when he was in high school. The guy’s jugular vein was almost severed and he was bleeding out the wazoo. My dad, who knew a thing or two about first aid (thanks to Boy Scouts), took off his apron and wrapped it around the guy’s neck. The pressure helped minimize the bleeding and, voila…the dude lived!

(2) He was/is an eagle scout.

(3) He worked his way through college at Marquette University making donuts!

(4) While in Medical School at Indiana University, his gross anatomy lab partners joined him in cutting the pubic region off of their cadaver and secretly placing it in another student’s lab coat pocket. I guess that guy freaked out when he discovered the harry mound when he reached to grab his scalpel. Oh, the birth of a prankster.

(5) He has the best farts!

(6) One time, while giving an anesthetic in the O.R., my dad mooned the surgeon in the adjacent O.R. (the two O.R.’s were connected by a window).

(7) He is a truly giving person (which is sometimes a blessing…sometimes a curse).

(8) When my brother and I were approaching adolescence, he agreed to let us get our own subscription to Playboy! Don’t worry, though, my mom stopped that one before it got to the mailbox!

(9) He has THE BEST one liners. One of my favorites is this one: “yeah, that went over about as well as a pay toilet on the diarrhea ward!” Where does he get this shit (pun only kind of intended?).

(10) Sometimes he gives the best, simple advice about life. One time Karen and I thought our cat, Kelso, had run away (only to find out later that the contractors of our new house accidentally installed Kelso into the wall when they installed the dish washer). But, before we found Kelso in the wall, my dad and I drove around the neighborhood looking for him. I was in tears most of the time as my Dad kept an eye out for our cat. I kept on asking “Why, Dad? Why is this happening to us?”

When my Dad was 26 (and an intern at a Fort Wayne Hospital in the E.R.) his 16 year old brother, Johnny, was killed in a car accident. To this day, my Dad rarely talks about that experience (he was actually on call that night and was called in to work on HIS OWN BROTHER!). As my Dad listened to me piss and moan, on an on about our little cat, he quietly and with great comfort responded by saying, “I asked the same question when Uncle Johnny died. And, Marc, sometimes we will just never know why these things happen.” I melted right there in the car.

(11) He does the BEST dance impression of Axl Rose (which was a huge hit with my friends when I was in Junior High).

(12) My dad supports me in everything I do. If I wanted to be a lawyer, he would be proud. If I wanted to be a doctor, he would be proud. If I wanted to be a Korean Nail Technician, HE WOULD BE PROUD.

(13) When I told my dad that I was going to marry Karen, he cried with happiness.

(14) When Karen and I told my dad that we were having a baby, he cried with happiness.

(15) When I told my dad that we were having a boy, he said “It’s going to be a little Max!” and then…he cried with happiness.

I am missing many more great things about my Dad, but I think you get the point. I am proud of him and I have learned many, many things from him (both due to omissions and commissions).

As you may have gathered, I am going to be a Dad. Kind of like my Dad is, but me instead of him. I will be a different Dad than my Dad was to me, because I am a different person. But, I will most likely carry on many of the ‘fatherness’ that my Dad extended to me…besides I am, as you know, a chip off the ol’ block.

[This is my first official blog entry. I want to write things that my son, Max, who will arrive in February, might appreciate reading someday. I also thought some of my friends and family might enjoy these reflections as well. Let me know what you think.]