Fathers Day Revisited

I hope everyone enjoyed the day yesterday. I know I did. I spent it as I spend all days, with the father of my children who I fell for at the tender age of 19 when I saw how his story matched my own, both of us fatherless, both accustomed to a life where we were special to no one in the great world, looked on with special favor by no one.That part was OK. Most people are in this position.David's dad contracted stomach cancer when David was ten. Mine...well, mine had his own problems, which I have said a little about here. He came to see me only once on the occasion of my baptism and by a stroke of luck somebody took our picture. I'm the sleeping one in the arms of my Aunt Julia. He's the sad-looking one in the hat, face turned away.The picture was taken at my grandfather's house where Mom went to live as after he left us. He stayed only an hour as she told me 20 years later. He didn't speak to Mom and he didn't so much as look at me. He had left us eight months before and felt ashamed I imagine.He did his best in life, of that I am sure.And this is David's doomed young Dad beneath here, when he was in high school. His first-born son, David's big brother Toby, looks quite a bit like him as you can see.But lacking a dad doesn't mean you can't enjoy that third Sunday in June.Nor does it mean you can't be a great dad yourself, as my kids' dad is and has been since our very first child first drew breath in this world.This is the man, in summer once by a lake.Here's to all fathering then, whatever form it may take!