So tomorrow is Father’s Day. Been thinking the past week about what that means, not just to me, although I really only have my own viewpoint to reference. I am so blessed to still have my father with me. He just turned 66, and while time is beginning to win the war on the man I once believed to be Superman, I still look at him and see the hero of my childhood… my hero today.
Then again, I had many fathers growing up. I was blessed beyond words to have many such heroes in my life. Some have passed away and are waiting for me to join them in heaven and some are still here, still willing to help in any way necessary.
With ‘necessary’ being the key word. See? Fathers are different than mothers. Mothers always pick you up, dust you off, hug you and kiss you and tell you things will be fine. Fathers don’t always do that. Fathers run along with you, help you pick yourself up, sure sometimes they will pick you up by themselves, but most of the time you have to do most of the work. They don’t dust you off. Most of the time, a lesson from my father included ‘rubbing dirt on it’. A lesson from my Papa Dave included ‘sucking it up’.
Because sometimes, it’s the Father’s job to knock you down a peg or two. Put you in your place. Tell you what you DON’T want to hear. My dad was never really gentle about it either. Maybe he tried to be, but if there was something that needed told, he just said it. Made us tough.
All my dads were here for that. Toughness with love. Because if there’s one thing I learned growing up, there was nothing in the world that compared to the love a father had for his daughter… his ‘baby’ girl. No matter how old we were, no matter the birth position. I saw it in all my fathers who dealt with their daughters, be it his biological daughter or one of us surrogates who he happened to adopt because, well, we were all family.
I guess this is why I’m having difficulty with this feeling that’s been washing over me lately. Father’s Day, (my father, your father, our fathers) are every bit as important as our mothers. Not only are they responsible for 50% of our genetic makeup and 100% of our gender, but they help shape and form our personality, sense of humor, our goals, morals, ethics, everything we grow up to become. I have friends who have lost their fathers who have huge holes in their hearts and lives that will never be filled. I pray for them constantly!!!!
Father’s Day is just as important a ‘holiday’, it is just as important a day of recognition as Mother’s Day. Stop and think for a moment about where you would be without your father. I don’t want to think where I would be without mine. I can’t imagine going through a day like tomorrow and not honoring the man who taught me so many important values in life, who gave me my sense of humor, taught me to love sports and to drive a car.
My father is every bit as important to me as my mother is. I pray that I never get to a point where I’m too busy, too tired, or too burdened to make my father and this day a priority. Every father deserves that kind of respect. My father, every father who helped to raise me, deserves that kind of respect. And if I press myself to give it to my mother and the mothers who raised me, then I’m going to give it to my father as well. (And yes, this includes my Heavenly Father too!)
So take some time this Sunday to thank the man who is 50% responsible for you being here and 100% responsible for your gender. (LOL!)
And before I go, I want to leave you with some wonderful, but very important advice my father has always taught me.
Famous Quotes by Richard C. Abresch
“No matter where you go, there you are.”
BR549 is always the phone number you need.
The answer to every math question is the “square root of pi”.
“It’s colder than a well-digger’s ass.”
“It’s colder than a witch’s tit.”
“I ate a dead frog once and it didn’t kill me.”
“I’m busier than a one-armed wallpaper hanger.”
“I’m madder than a long-tailed cat in a room full of rockin’ chairs.”
“I’m busier than a one-legged man in a butt-kickin’ contest.”
(There’s also one about women of ill-repute and dollar days, but I’ll keep it clean-ish. Hehehehe!)
“I feel like a 100 bucks.” (This he stole from Chevy Chase, but he loves it so!)
“Doc says I’m gonna live until I die.” (This is the report he gets from EVERY doctor visit he has!)
“Wake up and pee, the world’s on fire.” (This is shouted as he’s banging on your door in the morning to wake you up.)
“Rub some dirt on it.”
His favorite joke: “A Rabbi, Catholic Priest, and a Minister walk into a bar. Bartender says, ‘What is this? Some kind of joke.”
My grandma, his mom, always shook her head and said she never understood his sense of humor. I do, because it’s the same sense of humor I have. My dad is the master of it. Master of one-liners. I could fill pages and pages with the stuff he says that just cracks me up, but these are the best. These are the tried and true ones. These are quirks that make a dad, a dad.
Cherish your fathers… Not just on Father’s Day, but EVERY DAY. We only have them for a short time before our Heavenly Father calls them home.
I love you, Dad… All my dads. I have truly been blessed by the best!!!!