Author’s note: My 88-year-old father is also a Catholic priest. As a widower, he entered the seminary at age 62 after running his own business for years. At age 65, he graduated with his master’s degree in theology and was ordained a Catholic priest. His experiences of growing up in the depression, serving in WWII in China, raising six kids, having 18 grandchildren, and running his own business have given him insight, wisdom, and a great sense of humor about life. Here I share short wisdoms from my father the Father.
Sitting at his kitchen table, my dad and I were discussing how to live one’s life. I said to him, “At the end of it all Dad, how do you want to feel about how you lived your life?’
He sat quietly for a bit and then said, “I want to feel all used up.”
This was his way of saying he wanted to feel he did everything he could with what he had all his life. I think this belief in being “all used up” was a driving force for him to enter into a whole new 20-plus year career at age 65. I remember him at age 85 returning home exhausted after visiting a nearby prison where he had just completed a religious service for inmates.
I said, “Dad, you might want to slow down a little bit.”
He replied, “As long as I can do this I will.”
In the video the narrator says, “I want to be used. That is your greatest wish.”
I think to myself, “What does being all used up look like for my life?”
How about you? What does that look like?
michael j. brennan 