Fetterisms (3 of 5)

"I’m your Father. I am not going to quit. I am not going to retire. And, you can’t fire me."
(Guest Blogger: Paul "Papa" Fetters)

At times I have felt, " I don’t like this aspect of being a father."

On one occasion, I was told by my oldest son, "Pop you are blowing it as a father." On that particular day, he probably had good reasons for the way he felt about my parenting skills.

That little confrontation was a chin stroker, a real head scratcher, or as the "King of Siam" mused, "a puzzlement."

After reflecting, I realized that it was my first time around raising three teenage sons. But they were also on their first time around as teenagers. Boy were they blowing it.

We concluded that in a few years they would have opportunity for blowing it as first-time fathers. Their children would be blowing it as teens. I would again be blowing it as my first time grandfathering. But until then, "I am the adult around here. I am the one called, ‘Father.’ I am not going to retire, I am not going to quit, and they could not fire me."

Fetterisms (2 of 5)

"Pretty Is As Pretty Does"
(Guest Blogger: Paul "Papa" Fetters)

Over the years, I have learned to be cautious in employing, assigning, selecting, or recommending potential.

Often, when I have bought into one’s "potential" at 20, they still were showing "potential" at 40...and still waiting for performance.

The recommendations of leaders are often based on one’s potential or what one hopes the person will some day become. Those who are some day “gonna be” when this happens or that happens will remain a “gonna be.”

Potential and promise of an elite thorough bred hound will look pretty on paper and sound great in speech, but the performance of a ordinary beagle, whose mother comes from good stock and whose father is unknown, will get the job done.

Fetterisms (1 of 5)

"Everyone's A Theologian"
(Guest Blogger: Paul "Papa" Fetters)

Theology is the study of God. It comes from two Greek words, Theos (God) and Logos (rational thinking). Thus, theology is one’s rational thinking about God and those things pertaining to God.

Everyone is a theologian is a fact I learned as a boy in Charlie's Inn, the local “Beer Joint” in Willshire, Ohio. I grew up a Pagan Protestant. In the 1930, 40s, and 50, you were Protestant, Catholic, or Jew. You were baptized a Catholic, or born a Jew, or a Protestant by choice, or as in my case, by default.

Although my family did not cast their shadows in the door way of a church, my theological training was not ignored by the mentors at Charlie’s. Most of the men had seen better days spiritually--some had been baptized, others confirmed, and a few had experienced an earlier conversion crisis.

There was not one subject on which my mentors at Charlie’s did not share their rational thinking. Even the atheist and agnostic are given to moments in which they share there thinking about the concept of “God.” It seems that individuals can not leave God alone.

Perhaps it is because God will not leave them alone.