Parents

I'm currently reading the autobiography of Brander Matthews; and, the other day, I came across a passage that I liked:

We none of us order our lives to best advantage, and as we look back at our careers we cannot but blush at the blunders we have committed. Yet as I turn my gaze to the past, and as I bring before my eyes again the figures most familiar to me in my childhood, it seems to me that in one respect at least I made no mistake. I did not err in what is perhaps the most momentous act of life, the most far-reaching in its inevitable and inexorable consequences — in the choice of my parents and of my grandparents. However much I may be dissatisfied with myself, with them at least I am completely contented.

He wrote this after explaining how his dad lost what was to be his multi-million inheritance by investing in a failed North Carolina railroad.  So what he said goes doubly for my parents.  I was going to post this in honor of my Dad's birthday--but now I'm a couple days late!