I'm not sure how I feel about a holiday that reminds me that my daughter's Net Fu is this:
While mine is this:
I don't have a particularly warm-n-fuzzy relationship with either of my parents, and Father's Day is not precisely Mother's Day when it comes to "smack me upside my head with a wet towel wrapped around a brick" marketing and soppy sentimentality. I didn't choose my parents, so I'm not particularly heartbroken by the distance and strain between us. Coupled to this is the fact that both are now elderly-- Dad'll be 90 this year, Mom will be 83-- and my dad is in a nursing home for severe dementia.
It's sad to see his fine mind-- taught himself calculus with a fourth grade education-- gone, and his strong and healthy body (carpenter) withered to straw and skin. I feel pity for him, of course, and there's a hint of gratitude for putting his seed in my mom to create me, and I'm not suicidal about this next bit, but damn, if you're going to father a son, you ought to be a dad to him, too.
Maybe this is why I'm liberal (for the record, dad is a dyed-in-the-wool Socialist) and maybe why I think deadbeat dads ought to be strung up by their balls until their vas deferens can feed a hungry Sudanese family for a week.
But to you, happy father's day, whether you be a dad, a not-dad, or a not-man who loves a dad.
But, to bring this post to a "happy furry end", here are some cute l'il animal dads....
The seahorse. The world's only animal where the wife can't complain about labor pains.
The American marmoset, where the dad raises the children from birth while the wife goes down to the bar and watches the ballgames.
The microcylid frog, where the male carries the stinkin' litte rat bastards around on his back...rotten little kids, you work your whole life just for them....
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