My father was born on May 25, 1927. This year he would have been 84. I think about him everyday. He was a quiet, introspective man perhaps bent a little too much toward the morbid in life... but he was a physician after all, he saw much morbidity in life.
Through him I've learned the difference between high class and pretension. There are many who feel a firm grasp of table manners, an in depth knowledge of fine wines, a critical eye for film and books, or even just simple material wealth and other such trivial things are part and parcel of what makes a person "high class". In relative terms my father was not anymore in possesion of these things than the next man.
My father new what duty was. He knew what hard work was, and he knew what real responsibilty was. He carried many burderns on his shoulders, admittedly some invented in his own mind - particularly at the end when cancer had spread throughout his body - but the point is, he carried his burdens for the most part with quiet dignity and moved forward. If he ever blamed anybody for his lot in life (he lost two children - one to ALL, the other to schizophrenia), he kept it to himself. At least while his mind was sound - which, toward then end, it most certainly wasn't.
But what made him high class in my mind was not his social connections; he had none, not his alma mater and certainly not his money; he had lots. It was the way he treated people. He never looked down on anyone. He talked to you the same way whether you were a prince or a pauper. And most importantly - and this you could sense when you talked to him - he had something to learn from everyone. No one's story was to "boring" or "base" for him - he looked passed the surface.
There are those who do not understand the depth of this - this is not networking; it's true human connection and compassion. It is what high class is - all the other is just pretension.
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