On the 16th April my Dad turns . . . well, no one can remember that far back actually. My Dad is the International Man of History, present at most of the world's historic milestones, eyewitness to human progress, the birth of the printing press, an innocent bystander at the French Revolution, a survivor of the continental divide (he jumped on the New Zealand piece of land when it was near the north pole), a spectator at the close of the Ice Age (bit too chilly, he once told me). Need I go on?
Now retired in tropical paradise in Queensland, Australia, among the sounds of chirrping parrots and slurping of pinapple juice, surrounded by pretty nurses beckoning his every call, controlling the world from his motorised wheelchair, and finding solutions to the Greatest Crossword Puzzles of modern times.
And I walk in his footsteps, though with unequal stride. Still, I must say, I have become a better chef than my father, despite his reputation. Perhaps the next time we meet, I will prove it to him. His gravy had too much flour, and was sometimes lumpy.
My father, like me, always had a fascination for technology and a desire to empower people in it. In the 1970's he used to say that one day we would get computer input on our TV's, although he didnt foresee that we would get TV on our computers. Around 1979-1980, in our little beach town of Orewa, New Zealand, my dad started a computer class at the local high school to empower ordinary people to use computers. Like most things he did, it was probably one or two years before its time, certainly before anyone really had a computer. And now i am about to drive off to help empower some more people to have a voice on the internet. As I said, in his footsteps.
Everyone, this is John Daniel Jones, Innovator, Pioneer, Teacher, Professor, ShortSkinnyKiwi, my Dad.
Thanks to Pastor Barry Horton (Island of Hope), my Dad's Spiritual Advisor, who regularly prints off my blog and takes a copy over him.
