Similarities

Every winter I grow my beard in along my cheeks. I typically keep my beard in a short goatee. But, something about the winter makes me feel like growing out the rest. My cheeks are turning just a little bit grey. I’ve always felt like I looked rather young so in a way I glad that I’m finally looking my age.
The is one small side effect that comes from my expanded facial hair. Many people who knew my father think that I look a lot like him with the full beard. I see the resemblance but I also feel like I look a little more like my mother’s side of the family. Frequently I will attend church in another Ward for some kind of family event. A few member will walk up to me and tell me how much they think I look like my dad. I do my best to just accept their compliments in the spirit that they intended it. But, something inside me wonders exactly what they are seeing. Is it just the beard? Is it just the physical resemblence?
As I stated when I first started this blog, my father loved learning and was constantly seeking to improve himself. He taught my to learn to love this quest for truth. I that way I feel I am continuing with much of the work that my father had started. Rog taught me to love the works of Thoureau, Gandhi, Martin Luther
King and the Dalai Lama.
But one are that I believe I am falling far short of the example set by my father is in my ability to put these teaching into practice. His ability to love his fellow man will always be a benchmark for me to reach. His ability to forgive and seek forgiveness is something that I still have yet to master.
So while I know that people mean it as a compliment when they point out the similarities, I tend to take their word a little too personally. I tend to see the ways that I have fallen short of earning the praise that they are giving me.
I will continue to work to improve myself in these ways so that eventually these comparisons to my father will not be taken so bittersweetly.