Fathers Day

[rkenney]

My father passed away last year and is daily remembered for having taught me the most valuable lesson in life. A difficult lesson and not one that I recognized till years later, my father taught me the meaning of 'tough love.'

Now many of you reading this will jump to the conclusion that my father compelled me to suffer some great hardship to learn this lesson. That was certainly a popular idea when I was growing up. Force the kids to endure the harsh realities of life.

Exactly the opposite was true. The love he taught me was tough on him, not on me. Countless times he went to bat for me and supported me despite having to sacrifice some of his own pride, personal conviction, or leisure.

After some time when I had been defiant, argumentative or downright combative and he had responded similarly, he came and apologized. Not for my behavior, I came to realize, but for his own, where he thought he had not achieved some standard he held himself to.

The lesson is simple enough. One I've needed with my own children and not easy to live up to. Love is sacrifice. I need to give up my own foolish pride, my selfish ambition, my wants, my time, and my self-serving indignation.

The proving ground for this may be your own family as it has been for dad and myself, but the real test is carrying this sacrifice into the world. Something dad excelled at as well, "Love your neighbor as thyself."

[John Dirks Jr]

Well said Bob.

It sounds like your father was the type that willingly absorbed the burden of others. The world will always need more people like him. Your description of him sounds similar to my father too.

[Inspectorjoe]

Great tribute to your dad, Bob. You know he had the satisfaction of seeing you mature through the years and become the man he was guiding you towards. I missed out on learning many of life's lessons from my dad, as he died suddenly shortly after I turned 13. Two days ago, I encountered a an unbelievable connection to my dad on an inspection: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =1&theater

I never had kids of my own, but I am a dad. I have two stepdaughters. The younger one considers me her dad, although her biological father is still around. I may have overstepped my role as a step parent in her teenage years. I was pretty hard on her. She rebelled and went to live with bio dad. Once she became an adult, she realized I was the one who really cared about her. Bio dad is now out of her life and I've gladly taken on the title of dad. I'm a lucky man.

She always takes me out for Chinese on Father's Day. This afternoon, we broke with tradition and went Mexican.

Click to Enlarge

65.02 KB

[Mike Lamb]

My Dad. Circa 1930's, and 1970's with my sister's dog.

Click to Enlarge

22.11 KB

Click to Enlarge

10.83 KB

[Jim Baird]

Click to Enlarge

64.04 KB

My father in the early 1940's.

Click to Enlarge

64 KB

My daughter in 2007. She seems to favor her grandad.

[Inspectorjoe]

Holy cow, Jim - the resemblance is amazing.