carettiville: Call Your Dad

"Call your dad." A seemingly harmless suggestion listed in my copy of Real Simple under the title, "What to do if you Have 5 Minutes". Well, that harmless suggestion had me weeping in my bath water tonight. I'll admit, it's been building for a while (the emotion, not our house). It all started last week on the way home from church. Josh and I were discussing the house, I know, shocker! There are just all these trivial things that have to be done and he casually mentioned that those are the things his dad would have taken care of and known about. Up until that point I hadn't really given that a lot of thought.
Five emotional days later, I have given it plenty of thought. In fact, I have allowed it to consume me. What if our dads were still here? I wonder if our plans would change. Would we even be building right now? Would they get along? It's hard to imagine Richard not getting along with someone. But the big question is, would we listen to their advice?
Knowing what we know now, we would listen to anything they had to say, regarding any topic.
It's funny how when you're young, maybe even when you're not so young, you don't want to listen to your parents or grandparents. You're not interested in learning from mistakes made by others and most advice, if not all, is unwelcome. A roll of the eyes and shrugging shoulders are far more common than attentiveness and appreciation.
I would give anything to hear just a little advice from one of our father's again. I try to imagine what they would do or say. Would Dad be appalled if my landscaping wasn't up to par? Would Richard try to talk Josh out of putting in a pool? Yes and yes. I know those answers. Those are the easy ones. But it would be so nice to just pick up the phone and ask.