The Genie in the Lamp
I have a lamp in my living room. It is one of those lamps that were popular in the 70s, the ones that you turn on and off by touching the lamp itself. No switch, just tapping the metal surface of the lamp turns it on, changes the level of light, or turns it off. My mom bought it when she redid our living room when I was a kid, then it moved with my dad to Arkansas, Finally, it came to live at my house after I cleaned out his apartment last year. There is a lot of nostalgia in that lamp, and it was something that I was compelled to load in my car and bring back with me…after all, it has been in my life for almost 50 years. The thing is, I am convinced that my dad is using it to communicate with me from “the great beyond”. A bit of background on my dad: He was a caretaker. His main priority in life, the thing that fueled most everything that he did, was the support of those he loved. His father left his family (mom and 4 kids) when my dad was about 10. Being the eldest child, a lot of th...