A father’s thoughts on Father’s Day

Happy Father’s Day to all who celebrate. As I recall, I’ve been lucky enough that never once did I receive a necktie as a Father’s Day gift. It seems to me that would be akin to dad giving the family a new roof on the house as a Christmas present. A new roof might be needed and suck up lots of money, but it’s not consistent with my idea of a present in the spirit of the season. Come to think of it, to my knowledge, I don’t believe I’ve ever known a man who thought he needed a necktie as a gift but perhaps my friends have been keeping such preferences from me so I wouldn’t get upset.

We’re off to visit our children for much of the day. The Jeep is air conditioned so that will help. Acting in loco parentis, the bird bath has been cleaned and refilled. Birds and squirrels, just like the rest of us, need to keep hydrated in weather like this. The Better Half has been diligently watering the reseeded yards and the new garden plantings since rain showers, when they appear at all, have been passing to our north and south but we’ve been getting little more than occasional sprinkles and there’s none of that in the forecast for days. Didn’t the climate scientists mention something about increased volatility in weather patterns?

red squirrel at birdbath

Photo by J. Harrington

If I’m stuck in the house much of the week, I’ll keep busy with reading and getting an excess of books organized, if I can figure out how I want to organize them. I keep vacillating among genre or author or geographic area and/or cross referencing. For example, Jim Harrison is known for his novels and novellas, but he was also an accomplished poet and screenwriter and wrote about food. Much of his work focuses on the outdoors as a theme or context. His works are a classic example of my inclination to lump everything together by author, but then where do the author’s books go? Everything arranged alphabetically by last name? That would simplify some searches but not all.

I’ve been fascinated for a long time by the friendship between Harrison and another author I enjoy, Ted Kooser, known primarily as a poet but also accomplished as an essayist and memoirist. I’ve read references that Harrison got to know Kooser when Harrison was researching his novel Dalva. Kooser lives in Nebraska, the setting for much of Dalva.

Obviously, many of my “problems” are clearly first world, privileged, middle-class issues. Too many fathers are currently fighting wars or natural disasters and unable to satisfactorily provide food, water, shelter and love to their children. That means the rest of us need to do what we can to make next Father’s Day better for everyone. That includes Republicans and Russians and Palestinians and everyone. Paul Wellstone said it right when he noted “we all do better when we all do better.” That sounds like something my father might have told me when I was growing up.

Shoulders

Naomi Shihab Nye - 1952-

A man crosses the street in rain,
stepping gently, looking two times north and south,
because his son is asleep on his shoulder.

No car must splash him.
No car drive too near to his shadow.

This man carries the world's most sensitive cargo
but he's not marked.
Nowhere does his jacket say FRAGILE,
HANDLE WITH CARE.

His ear fills up with breathing.
He hears the hum of a boy's dream
deep inside him.

We're not going to be able
to live in this world
if we're not willing to do what he's doing
with one another.

The road will only be wide.
The rain will never stop falling.

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