Father's Day 2008

Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads, Pop’s, Daddy’s, and Father’s on this wonderful day of the year. For those of you out there with young children, teenagers, twenty-something’s, older kids or geriatrics’, this day is a mix of giving and receiving. I’m not talking about just gift giving, phone calls, text messages and cards. All of us have a Father, so it is a day to honor, reflect, celebrate, and appreciate that special individual in our life. We wouldn’t be here without them. This is also the day for many of us who have reached the plateau of parental responsibility, fatherhood, to experience, to receive, that recognition, appreciation, and some good old fashion love from the people we are working very hard everyday not to goof up to badly.

Okay, I said it. Maybe I should have gone with the nice respectful post for the day. Do the daily comment and move on. But, oh, No, not on your life, that is just not my style. Don’t get me wrong. Being a dad is the greatest job in the world. It just doesn’t come with an instruction manual, not that we guys would read it! Instructions would be like a map, that we would have to stop and ask directions; isn’t that why the GPS was invented? So we wouldn’t have to ask anymore. There just aren’t lots of guy versions of OPRAH, or Dad magazine out there. Not that these would change the outcome.

This is a different, somewhat difficult day for me. This is the first Father’s Day that I will experience without my Dad. He passed away in April so I will move through this day with a whole in my heart the size of the state of Texas. It’s not that we would have a long conversation on the phone today, smile, they never were. We’re guys! It was the comfort of just knowing he was there if I needed him. That would make the day for me. We would exchange pleasantries, there would be a discussion about the weather, my other seven siblings, the status of the Washington Redskins, maybe some politics, and then we’d close out the conversation as he moved into the Grandfather role asking about the kids. Just thinking about one of those calls has helped me to hear the voice. He is missed.

Turning to my role in Father’s Day. I am very fortunate to be the father to four wonderful children. These are the people that make the world turn for me along with my lovely spouse. Each day I get to see with wonderment the development, the thrills, the spills, and the growth. These four beautiful people, each with the spark that makes them unique to this world, are there everyday and all it takes is one hug, a snuggle, or the head on the shoulder to make anything I face in a day all worthwhile. On this day, it is I who am honored to have such wonderful children, even when you don’t clean your room or you beat me in Wii, I love you.

Happy Father’s Day