"Shooting Dad"

       Sarah Vowell's "Shooting Dad" was a kind of lighthearted tale about how the daughter of a gunsmith comes to know herself a bit better while finding some common ground with her pops. I find that most reporters and media figures tend to lean left politically, as was definiteley the case in this story. I thought it was awesome that Sarah mentioned reading Ginsberg novels while her dad would be downstairs making gun barrels. I could really picture their house in Montana while listening to this lecture. What I really enjoyed about this story was that there seemed to be such a lightness to their talk of death. It seemed surreal, and genuine at the same time that Sarah's father would have his ashes blown out of a cannon he made. What a tale. What a scene. Sarah who was the obvious rebel in the family discovers that she is just like her pops. She suddenly realizes that she likes her little toys as much as he does, and that they are both artists and slightly rogueish.The music in the background seemed to amplify the setting, along with Sarah's voice which seemed casual and submissive, but straight forward and a little playful to.
      I asked myself after listening to this, what kind of memorable ritual will I have when my dad passes?
we only see each other a couple times a year. He is a retired commercial fisherman living in Bodega Bay. It was a long time before I discovered how much I was like him, which makes me think of my rebellious years and in thinking about those times I reflect back on Sarah's story and remember my own overwhelming epiphany- that I need to be near or in the ocean my whole life. It seems like I'm drawn to it sometimes more than others.  Even later, when asking about my dads parents and grandparents I came to find out that his father captained a steamboat in Alaska and his grandfather was a fisherman as well. Most of my rebellious years I didn't want to be anything like my parents, not that I'm a fisherman now, but it was strange how once I realized why that part of me was the way I was I was totally accepting of it, and in that way It seems that Sarah's story was similar probably to the way a lot of people probably feel once their rebellious years are over and they come to understand where and who they come from.