There’s a point somewhere in all this rambling, and I guess it's this: whether you realize it or not, as a father, you have more influence on your children simply by being their father than you can ever imagine. My wife sometimes jokingly says I’m acting more like my father every day. I’ve already heard Tom’s wife tell him he was acting like me.
My father was a loving man; a bit eccentric; a bit impatient; overly cautious; and truthful to a fault. He had no more quirks than any other aging man. As I think back on how he raised me and what that did for me in life, I have to be thankful. As I look at my own kids, Tom, David, and my daughter Sara, I am thankful once again, thankful that my father instilled in me something that drove me to raise them the same way he raised me.
Was it the fishing that caused all this? Obviously not, though I could make a pretty good argument for that theory. I think it was that he did what we all need to do as men and fathers. He looked out for his kids. He taught us right and wrong, good and bad, and he did it with a firm loving hand.
I miss him this week – heck, I miss him every day. I’m celebrating without his physical presence; but the evidence of his life today is as real as it was ten years ago. As you celebrate Father’s Day this next week, take a good look at yourself, men. Maybe this isn’t a holiday for all of us to receive gifts. Maybe it’s a holiday made for us to look within ourselves and see just what kind of father we really are.
