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Father's Day                                         By Ofelio Chen                           Contents

I’m taking this time to tell about the father’s position in a family. I think in every country, every culture, every father has the same position in a family.

In the children’s eyes their fathers are strong as a mountain; their love is huge as an ocean. Beside these, they also consider their fathers can give them the security, support, confidence, concern, forgiveness….

Why do I say that? Because passed through my childhood, too. Though I can’t remember my father very well, and he never gave me education or support, I knew he loved me. Why do I say that? I remember before I left Hong Kong for Panama in 1962, my father told to me, he was sorry that he hadn’t given me an easy life that we’d been together less than a year and now had to be separated again. His words moved me deeply. I saw that my father was a disabled old man, and I felt hurt because I wanted to help him. I didn’t want anything from him; I just asked God to protect my old father. I loved him very much, and though my father has gone, I still love him, and think of this especially on father’s Day.

I think maybe my background has influenced me. Since I was young I wanted to be a responsible father. I wanted to work hard to help my children finish their college education. Thank GOD all four of my children finished their college educations and they show respect and love for my wife and me.

I think about the past, and recall that my father was a man who had a long view of the future. If I hadn’t had that unpleasant experience of separation from my father in my youth, I wouldn’t appreciate him so much today. My father was so smart, I thank him. If my father were is still alive, I would say, “Thank Papa I got.

What Use Is A Large Army                 Contents

A long time ago there was general. He directed his army and his king to fight with the enemy. He lost the war. During the battle his king hurt his eye.

While the general was directing the battle, the general got thirsty, and he wanted to drink some water. He ordered his guard for him some water. [But at this moment the battle was violence and very difficult to got a chance to get some water for him.] His guard gave him a cup of wine instead of a cup of water for him. When he saw his guard gave him a cup of wine he was very angry and he said, “What are you doing? Do you give me a cup of wine at this moment?

Are you crazy?” His guard answered him, “General we don’t have water at this moment, I think to drink a cup of wine this moment is better than nothing.” The general pretended he was very angry and ordered his guard to get away from him. In real fact he enjoyed drinking wine, so he drank his cup of wine. The problem was coming; he couldn’t stop to drinking wine until he got drunk.

Even though the general lost his war at the first time, the king still believed the general was a good warrior in the war. He wanted to fight again. He ordered his guard to call the general to come to his office to discuss the war strategy. The general didn’t want to see the king, so he pretended to be sick and told to the king’s guard he was too sick to see the king.

When the king heard the general got a sickness, he went to visit his general. When he arrived at the general’s camp, he smelled a strong of wine; he knew the general was drinking wine. He ordered his guards to return to his camp and said to his guards, “I lost the war today and got hurt too. The only person I rely on is drinking now, my country is going to be destroyed, I have a strong army for what use? I don’t want to go to war anymore.” He ordered his guards to kill the general. He considered that having a drunken general was worse than better than having no general at all.

The moral of the story is: one should handle things with care. We should think logically.

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