"Look it up."
Coming across a word I'd not seen before while reading this morning, a voice inside my head immediately instructed me to "go look it up." And where does that voice come from ? My Dad.
Growing up, whenever one of his three children would come to him and ask, "Dad, what does this mean?" or "Do you know about this?" his response was always the same. "Go and look it up."
Our eyes would roll, we would sigh, but then we would do as instructed. Seeing as my Dad treasured books, and having worked for the Book of the Month Club for forty-eight years, there was never a shortage of bound copies in which to search for answers. From the Britannica Encyclopedia (which I found most difficult to read and understand) to individual books on every state in the Union to the Merck Manual, we had under our roof the means to find pretty much any information needed. While classmates might have to travel to their local library, I need go no further than the living room, my parent's bedroom or the basement.
The realization of what a gift that was did not dawn on me until I was much older. My Dad taught me the value of searching for answers and gathering information. So yes, I quickly sat down at my computer and googled the word "propitious" this morning. Which, I discovered, means: "giving or indicating a good chance of success; favorable." Liking both the sound and definition of the word, I plan on using it in the future.
I wish my Dad had lived long enough to have experienced computers and the Internet. I suspect he would have spent his entire day sitting before one, gathering more knowledge. But I also suspect, knowing his reverence for books, he would still have kept a thesaurus, dictionary and all his other hard bound books close at hand.
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