A number of you, like myself, are fathers. If you're like me, you forgot this day existed until you woke up this morning and saw somebody post it on Facebook. Fatherhood is not much celebrated in America today; indeed parenthood is not greatly appreciated by our cultural guardians, and fatherhood is both unacceptably masculine and indicative of some sort of biological binary that one might not be perfectly capable of transcending in the name of 'gender identity.' I suppose we shall hear even less about it in the future.
Still, fatherhood is a proud service that when done well provides lasting benefits to those who receive its service. It can also nurture important virtues in the man himself. As such it is worthy, quite apart from also being necessary to the survival of humanity and any sort of civilization.
I have certainly appreciated what it means to be a father more since my father was gone. I was a father while he was alive for a long time, but I didn't realize how much weight he was still carrying for me until he wasn't there to do it -- and I had to pick up the weight he carried for me, and for everyone else. His, too, because I had to close out all of his existing business; but that was merely duty. As, I suppose, is the rest of it.
We'll still hear plenty about fatherhood from people who have been lucky enough to have fathers.
ReplyDeleteAmen, Tex. And perhaps even more from people who lost them too early and know what they've missed.
ReplyDeleteAnd Happy Father's Day, Grim, a couple of days late.
Thank you, Elise.
ReplyDeleteI have certainly appreciated what it means to be a father more since my father was gone. I was a father while he was alive for a long time, but I didn't realize how much weight he was still carrying for me until he wasn't there to do it -- and I had to pick up the weight he carried for me, and for everyone else. His, too, because I had to close out all of his existing business; but that was merely duty. As, I suppose, is the rest of it.
Thanks for those, Grim. "Sins of the Father" is quite clever, and that rendition of Danny Boy may be the best I've ever heard.
ReplyDeleteI did not know until this weekend that the United States 'leads' the world in single parent homes. Recipe for disaster.