Nora, I am Proud of You!

. . . 'tis misfortune that awakens ingenuity, or fortitude, or endurance, in hearts where these qualities had never come to life but for the circumstance which gave them a being

William Makepeace Thackeray from The History of Henry Esmond

My Daughter Nora Kathleen Hickey graduated on Saturday May 10, 2008 with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Western Illinois University.

Nora is my first born and was barely 13 years old when she lost her mother. Having a hollowed out and pole-axed father to contend with would have been tough enough, but the fact that two-thousand years of Irish faux-Stoicism got tossed into my mixture made it worse; that and my litany of vices.

Nora, is now on the threshold. What? I have no idea.

To say that I love you, goes without saying - in fact, I say that very rarely, if at all.

To say that I am proud of you , easy.

To say that I will be there for you, I have been - it is not much, but it is your's.

Pain is often more emotional than physical. Pain was what brought you into the world; your mother's physical pain was overcome by the emotional and spiritual joy of beholding you for the first moment and taken by your mother with her into Eternity. Understand that - You and your brother and baby sister are the Joy that helped Mom leap to Jesus. Joy.

Joy is not bottled, cashed, or bargained for - it is earned through great labor and pain.

The secret of all living is in the doing and the doing is only made possible by Faith - in God, in yourself and in your family. God first; then in yourself; and then me and Conor and Clare and all the hundreds of Hickeys, Clearys,Donahues, Winters, Brennans, Walshes, Gunkels, Duvals and Olsons. They are with you always.

Now, get to work. The Pain is only just beginning and that comes well before the Joy.

Click my post title for a pretty good analysis of pain and life in the business world.