Journey With My Father

This is not intended to be a religious book even though I do discuss my own personal beliefs in several parts. But, since Limbo is the environment I find myself in, the subject of God, my Lord, and the basic framework of my Catholic faith is discussed when they seem pertinent. I truly hope I can share much more since Limbo becomes a place of great wonderment, but it is definitely not Heaven. Here I discover that my mind can expand exponentially and that results in great leaps of knowledge, technologies and relationships I never experienced on earth. It is this marvelous new journey that lets me know my father in a very human and more meaningful way than I ever did on earth. Here we finally talk to each other, a dad and son.

In Limbo I get to know the very quiet father I truly admired and emulated on earth but who I never really knew or understood. This was mostly because Pop was a tough first-generation German. He demanded so much and said very little to me, so we never really bonded as son and father. We simply existed. He just tolerated me, oldest son, until I finally left home. But I owe him so much and now I can tell him that my five successful careers were motivated and inspired by his work ethic and fairness to others. In Limbo we will share many new and old experiences that we could never have done on earth. First, I must find him among the billions who have gone there. When I do, we will revisit many of the significant events that we never shared during our lives on earth. Then just as important, we will be able to journey to such places as his WW I battlefield: the Meuse-Argonne. Then I will take him to the Vietnam Ho Chi Minh Trail where his hard line toughened me to survive my own brutal crucible of war.

We are both combat veterans, but I don’t recall a day or hour when my dad and I ever spoke about our wars. For each of us it was a subject we both chose to forget. Here we can talk about those terrible experiences. We are also able to revisit many other special places since our greatly expanded brains will facilitate going to any historical event or any other former life experience that one of us has lived. Only by going back with him to these places will I finally know the father I admired and trusted so much. What he taught me to cope with in life is immeasurable. Hopefully he feels the same way about me. Limbo will let us do this.