My father, who passed some years before came to my mind. I thought, “what can I write to honour him”? What came to mind most was the work ethic instilled in me from a young age. Also, the capacity to stop what we were doing and go fishing. We also often went fishing in the river to supplement the meals at home.
O Maijn Papa
You have taught me,
You have shown me,
You have guided me,
To do the things that I did not know.
When we went fishing,
you showed me how to tie knots,
you showed me how to thread the hook,
you showed me how to cast the line.
And when it came time to reel in the fish,
you were there for me, too,
and oh, what a fish, was that fish,
that we caught that day.
We did things on the farm,
that needed to be done,
the milking of the cows before school,
walking the field to confirm the canals had not burst their banks,
that the trickle tubes all had a regular flow.
Work was not work as we call it today,
it was an experience, a process,
it might be seen as mundane and repetitive,
yet I saw it as a challenge, to do it better.
There was excitement and competitiveness built in,
this made the day go faster,
there was no time to be bored,
there was a job to do.
We all rallied around and supported this activity,
and time and again we got the job done,
to finish the day,
to go fishing again.
Luigi Giuseppe Vittorio
26 February 2017