For Dad

Today is Father's Day. As days with capitals go, in my books Father's Day ranks right up there with Mother's Day and Victoria Day for providing excellent reasons to get out in the sunshine, roast some manner of beast and generally have a great time with family. I intend to do all of these things. But not today. Today I am very, very far away from my father and my family and although it makes me sad that I cannot see their faces laughing, I can remind myself of all the things my father taught me and thank him for those lessons, even at a distance.

One of the most profound lessons my father taught me was about love. Now, not a lot of you may know this but my father loves my mother more than any man I think has ever loved his wife and the mother of his children. I can tell you this with certainty because my home was not always an easy place to be. I'm not airing dirty laundry here so I'll just say there were arguments and sometimes the greater family as a whole didn't always get along with all the bits of itself that had joined the Collective over time. That can take it's toll on a person and show itself in many ways. My deeply introspective and gentle father seemed to grow a protective layer of prickles and stings in order to shield himself at times and watching him, I learned that reading quietly could sometimes be an act of defiance; a peaceful man's attempt to keep the peace, though not always successfully. Somehow, though, in the midst of all of this tumultuous family goings-on, he showed my brother and I what it meant to love someone with your whole heart. Dad loves Mom and that is the rock I have built my life upon. No matter what, even if it's hard, especially if it's hard, you never turn your back on that promise to love a person for the rest of your life and theirs. 

I have my father to thank for teaching me strength in the face of adversity, for showing me that love isn't always easy or pretty and that the things that are really worth fighting for are sometimes the best reasons to sit down, shut up and read your book. Dad is the reason I trust that people are essentially good, once you let them get all of the bullshit out of their system. He is the reason I love to laugh and the reason I love Husband with every tiny last little bit of my heart. No matter what.

He also told me once that when he was a little boy he dreamed of running away to the Wild West and joining Roy Rogers on his ranch, to grow up like a real cowboy. You can't help but love someone like that.