My dad has always liked going out to eat at restaurants.  When I go to visit him, we always go out together for a meal.  He likes to take people he cares about or wants to make a good impression on out to eat.

There is a pattern to the way he does things that I've noticed over the years.  When he moves to a place, he'll go around to many different places and find a few different restaurants that are particularly good.  Usually an Italian restraunt, an Asian restaurant, and a steakhouse.  Never franchises, always privately run businesses.

Once he finds these places that are good, he will take the time to tell them that they are good.  He will introduce himself to the owner and tell him that he enjoys the place and why, and ask to meet the chef and tell him that he liked the food.  He will tip them well.  He will come back again and again, and be a recognized and interested friend.

My dad isn't a customer.  He isn't a consumer.  He's a patron.

This is an important thing.  A thing much overlooked in a world where we get our food fast and everything we own from big box department stores, a world where those who appreciate the arts more than their budget allows get sued and inventors aren't permitted to build what they have dreamed.  We idolize the gangsters and the self-absorbed.

I do not want to be a consumer.  I want to be a patron of something good with every interaction I have, and feel that I am helping people with a little generosity here and there instead of scrambling to squeeze every dollar I can out of a system that I don't respect.

Thanks dad.