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All around the United States, fathers are waking to burnt toast and handmade gifts. Both were prepared by loving children who are making the effort to briefly diverge from a child’s right to selfishness to honor his or her dad.
It is only now that I realize the power of seeing my parents’ daily perusal of the newspaper. Seeking to emulate their example, it was important to me that I also obtained a section and breakfast’s regular accompaniment became the funny pages. Peanuts, The Far Side, Beatle Bailey, and so many others populated my mornings with humor, narration, and witty vignettes on life. Arranged over two pages in The Hartford Current, my eyes were trained to follow a certain routine which gave primacy to the favorites and Bill Waterson’s Calvin and Hobbes was an important focus. In my memory it did not take long to expand the reading to the natural next step of political cartoons and eventually sharing all the newspaper’s sections with the rest of my family.
The cliché tells us that imitation is the best form of flattery. With increasing frequency I pause, reflect, and realize that some gesture, action, or attitude is something inherited from my father. Superficially, his career in investments and mine in humanities do not appear to be similar paths, but we all are aware that what one does is far from who one is. Like most parents, mine worked hard and worried their way through sleepless nights as they tried to impart essential lessons. Thinking back I realize that only a portion of those conscious efforts made an impact, but that the real influence came through their example. Just like with the newspaper, unconsciously I have sought to be like them. It is on a day like today that it is important to thank them for the good example and to continue to emulate by passing that example to the next generation.
Happy Fathers’ Day.
It is only now that I realize the power of seeing my parents’ daily perusal of the newspaper. Seeking to emulate their example, it was important to me that I also obtained a section and breakfast’s regular accompaniment became the funny pages. Peanuts, The Far Side, Beatle Bailey, and so many others populated my mornings with humor, narration, and witty vignettes on life. Arranged over two pages in The Hartford Current, my eyes were trained to follow a certain routine which gave primacy to the favorites and Bill Waterson’s Calvin and Hobbes was an important focus. In my memory it did not take long to expand the reading to the natural next step of political cartoons and eventually sharing all the newspaper’s sections with the rest of my family.
The cliché tells us that imitation is the best form of flattery. With increasing frequency I pause, reflect, and realize that some gesture, action, or attitude is something inherited from my father. Superficially, his career in investments and mine in humanities do not appear to be similar paths, but we all are aware that what one does is far from who one is. Like most parents, mine worked hard and worried their way through sleepless nights as they tried to impart essential lessons. Thinking back I realize that only a portion of those conscious efforts made an impact, but that the real influence came through their example. Just like with the newspaper, unconsciously I have sought to be like them. It is on a day like today that it is important to thank them for the good example and to continue to emulate by passing that example to the next generation.
Happy Fathers’ Day.
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