My apology to my father

There was a paragraph in my post about my father and me, for which I do owe him an apology.  Here it is:

All of this I can accept, though some of it only barely.  The area upon which I must work is my own inability to remain centered, to understand that what he says about these issues is not personal to me, but reflects him.  My long history with my dad brings up in me the feeling that it is he who has lost his way.  (And that is not my business to try to change.)  Seems to me that my dad has Glenn Becked, Rush Limbaughed, and Sean Hannityed himself into a very tight position vis-a-vis the worlds; he hasn’t much room left in his life for anyone who does not agree with him or these bombastic talk show hosts.

Dad, what I have done here is exactly what I am trying to learn to avoid — I made an assumption.  I am deeply sorry that I wrote the above.  As I was writing, I think my emotions got in the way of my good sense.  That should be familiar to you, as you’ve seen it from me umpteen times in my life.  The frequency with which I have let myself use this kind of “argument” does not excuse me using it here.

I have been writing all week about not making assumptions, and I couldn’t understand why I continued to get this message for a prompt.  Now I see at least one good reason why — I got that message to avoid exactly the kind of words I wrote above.  My assumption led me to a judgment which was not mine to make.

I am very, very sorry, Dad. What I wrote above was not only my mistake, but also the exact mistake that I have tried so hard not to write.  I had no right to make those assumptions, or to publish them in this post.  Please accept my apology.  I love you, and I still have a long way to go, obviously, in mastering this lesson about not making assumptions.

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