Dad is cool

Tomorrow my dad celebrates another year. He is already older than most dad's I know, which I suppose is something I have gotten used to over the course of time. When I was younger I used to be embarassed about how much older my dad was than everybody else's dad, but as time went on I just accepted it and started to think it was cool. My dad is truly an amazing person, and has so much to do with who I am today. He instilled in me important values and always reminded me that the things that truly matter in life are those of "truth and beauty." He believed that people should strive to talk more about "ideas" and not just "other people." He is a lifelong musician and maintains a zest for the life of music to this day; still attending recitals, concerts and annual festivals on his greatest passion- the piano. My dad is always calm, reminding me frequently, in times of doubt or worry, to think, "Will any of this matter 100 years from now?"
Tomorrow is my Dad's 78th birthday. He was born in 1929. He still plays the piano everyday and reads more than anyone I have ever met. An active and well man of wisdom and experience, my dad is the kind of dad I would like to be someday.
On Saturday night Rachel and I are going to attend a recital with him at Westmoreland Church, where he was an organist (despite being a self admitted "heathen") for 23 years (before I was even born). It's the least I could do for him, being that I have never actually been to the church in which he spent so many of his younger years. In his earliest years in DC, my dad used lived on Connecticut Avenue and paid $90 for rent!