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Father’s Day, Come Full Circle
Father’s Day is one of those Hallmark Card holidays that hits differently for different folks.
Father’s Day is one of those Hallmark Card holidays that hits differently for different folks. By default if you are alive somebody somewhere was technically your sire, but the emotional bonds and various levels of attachments, responsibilities, help, traumas, good traits, bad habits, and on and on have been debated by philosophy, religion, psychiatry, and more bad songs than we care to admit.
Most Father’s Day I make sure to call mine if not visit, and try to downplay whatever my own children tell me about myself, knowing I could have done better, been there more, a thousand things I would do differently now than I would do then that they are not even aware of. Such is the burden of striving to be a flawed human trying to raise less-flawed children into being better-than-you humans; the rabbit hole of am I good enough is endless, so one must do their best, hope for the best, and try not to screw it up too bad.
I will be very thankful this Father’s Day, however, above just the usual platitudes. On New Year’s Day of this year I very nearly lost my father, who got 12 hours into 2024 before the year went sideways. A massive deep brain stem stroke struck him down, and besides the horror of…