What ought a father give to his daughter for her 16th birthday, that ever-so-important line of demarcation between childhood and adulthood?

I bought mine nothing.

Instead, I wrote her a poem … hence the poem’s title, “Words Instead.” She says it is the most memorable gift she’s ever received. I once did the same for my mother’s and father’s respective birthdays and the response was, by an order of magnitude, more appreciative than any prior gifts upon which I’d spent hundreds of dollars apiece.

The Age of Consumerism has turned us all into … consumers. We buy it, break it, then throw it away. A thing’s value is naught but its cost of replacement. But what if a thing’s value is so abstract that it cannot be determined by competing bid-ask prices or the laws of supply and demand? What if it can't be replaced because it was singular in its distinction? This is a conundrum that many find vexing as such thing's value could be anywhere between ‘worthless’ and ‘priceless.’

Ideas, ideals and insights are the pinnacles of such abstractions.

So, what ought a father give to his daughter for her 16th birthday, that ever-so-important line of demarcation between childhood and adulthood? What she'll need most in the years ahead.

Advice.

Poetry can make wonderful gifts

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