"I owe my work ethic to my father, who never taught me how to fish."
"For a man, there is no territory more virgin and uncharted than becoming older than your father ever was."
"On the day a boy realizes that he's big enough to take on his dad, he also realizes that he never will."
"Many a north country boy of my generation knows of a snapshot of himself as a tyke, seated with his father on a sled atop some snowy hill. He looks at this photo and realizes -- it's the only proof he has of ever being held in his father's arms."
"On the day my father sat me down to talk about the birds and the bees, we talked about the Red Sox game that day, and that was all he ever said to me on the subject of sex."
"A good father is too occupied being a father to worry about being a father figure."
"Your son is wary of accepting you as a playmate, knowing that you will become a father again the first time things don't go your way."
"You will find that if you really try to be a father, your child will meet you halfway."
"Your son will put up with your trying to be his pal if, when he needs a father, you will try to be his father."
"No man is adequate to the task of leading his nation, but if he is a father, he at least has experience in being inadequate to a task."
-- Robert Brault
5 comments:
I am sure these were written with humor, however some of them left me sad - especially the 4th one. Perhaps they hit a little too close to home.
Marlene, there's actually not much humor in these. Even the first one is more sad than funny. My father felt the pressure of feeding a family of six on a clerk's salary and had little energy left after his day's work to devote to his four sons. He was pretty much a depleted man when he died at 62. What my mother didn't teach us, we pretty much taught ourselves. But don't get me started.
smiles,
rb
I found many emotions rising to the surface while reading your words....thoughts and memories of my own childhood. What I found moving was the words you didn't say. Sometimes, reading between the lines touches one more deeply than what's actually written...
I feel I've captured another 'inner' snapshot of you with the reading of this. May you be blessed with a wonderful weekend...
'Til next time,
Mattie
My father was a father from the day my oldest brother was born. He became a dad the day my mother died.
Mattie, I don't quite know how I got locked in to checking your poetry blog and not your journal, but I was just over to your journal and was so glad to read of your improved health. It's a boost to all when the good guys catch a break.
Well, I'm bound to give myself away totally if I keep posting my every thought. As for my father, he was a hard-working, church-going man who did his duty by his family. His sons are all honest men, so what more could the good Lord ask?
Liz, you said it all in those two sentences. My father never quite became a dad, and I'm not sure he would have ever understood the distinction.
Great weekend to you both,
rb
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