Essay Fatherly advice By Tony Laszlo	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
父親らしいアドバイス インタビュー嫌いの筆者だが、最近、「人生について父親から何かアドバイスを受けたことはありますか」と聞かれたときは、ちょっと考えさせられ、面白い質問に感謝した。めったにああしろ、こうしろと言わなかった父だが、昔のことを思い起こしてみると、今も心に刻まれているアドバイスがある…。

I must confess to being a little interview-shy. Especially when the leading question is something like, "So, why do you write?" (Writers write for the same reason that dancers dance, doctors doctor and librarians library. It's what they want to do, and it beats going up a mountain with a load of bricks on your head, for tuppence).

However, now and again someone comes up with an interview topic that is not only palatable, but intriguing. For example: "Did your father ever give you any advice about how to live your life?" Now, there's a question.

When someone asked me this recently, I had to take a minute before responding.

On the face of it, my father rarely gave direct guidance. He rarely even gave orders. His philosophy on raising me and my brother could be summed up in one word: delegation. "Listen to your mother and do what she says," he used to tell us. Mom would lay down the rules, and we would obey them ... for the most part. The arrangement left my father free to go off to work from morning until night to support us all.

However, after scanning through my memories, I realized that there were, in fact, things that I learned from him. Not so much from what he said, as from what he did. My father was a self-educated dental technician, that is, someone who makes and repairs people's dentures. So, the first thing he taught me was to learn a skill that can support you anywhere in the world, and to work hard to be the best at it. He was a very good dental technician, by all accounts, and theoretically was able to work in any country where people had false teeth — which means most of the globe. Looking back over my own career, I guess it's fair to say that I sought to first guarantee my survival in life, and then moved on from there. That mindset is probably something inherited from my father.

I also remembered one of the rare occasions when my father actually did give me a verbal piece of advice, though it came more as a bit of concerned criticism. I had just purchased a state-of-the-art camera, and was proudly snapping pictures of this and that. He took one look at it and said, "Tell me you didn't go out and buy the very newest one."

I had.

"Never buy the latest model of anything," he said. "You pay a premium, and you never know when you're getting yourself a real lemon. It's always best to buy the big-seller from last year, especially if it is still selling well. That one's new enough, affordable, and you can be sure you're not just throwing your money away."

Being headstrong and having a brand-new gizmo around my neck, I scoffed a bit at the time, and I continued to buy the newest of the new. But, as he predicted, I've been saddled with my share of buggy products over the years. Computers, DVD recorders and washing machines are supposed to make our lives easier, but if you're not careful (or lucky), sometimes they'll cause more problems than they're worth.

Thanks to that interview, I've been reacquainted with a very sensible bit of advice from my dad. Let's see if I can apply it this time.

Shukan ST: May 19, 2006

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