“He Always Taught Her to Respect Herself”
Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL – April 24, 2012
A college-age daughter does not enjoy
hearing that her dad was quite the
when her age.
She can see him in a boy
that she is with: so tall and gaunt, a grin,
a joke, a casual touch roué. But now a man
quite married to her mom–could he have been
a thong-collector? (No, back then they called
them “panties…”)
Now a lawyer, then he studied
seduction, Casanova, de Sade?
Now he’s a Deacon in the Church– absurd!
- Steve Shoemaker standing at historic pulpit of Sheldon Jackson Church, Colorado
“Views from the Edge” note: Steve is not a Deacon and he’s not a lawyer. He’s a retired Presbyterian minister, poet, and activist living on the prairie near the University of Illinois. Steve was Pastor and Director of the McKinley Presbyterian Church and Foundation at the University of Illinois. He concluded his ministry as Executive Director of the University YMCA at the University of Illinois, a vigorous campus student center as big in heart and mind as Steve. His voice is heard every Sunday evening as host of “Keepin’ the Faith” an interview show on the University of Illinois’s radio station, WILL AM – Illinois Public Radio.
Views from the Edge 
What a great poem. I read it twice. It is true that people morph from one thing to another in their life and it is amazing how far they can come in one life. I knew someone once who would easily have had a dog put to sleep for barking too much, but after being exposed, repeatedly, to another way of looking at things through my mom, an animal lover, she started caring for lost and helpless animals and ended up becoming the executive director of a non-profit animal sanctuary and spay-neuter clinic and still, to this day, saves and nurtures animals in need.
Thank God we do change!!!
LikeLike
I’ll try harder. 🙂 As someone once said, “This is hard.”
LikeLike