Of interest this Father’s Day (Happy Father’s Day to those out there) is this article, “Remembering Dad” in the Seattle Times, in which a son (Michael Ko, a reported at the paper) remembers his dad.
“I’m 31 years old, married a year now and hoping to become a father soon. I’ve been looking with something like envy at some guy friends and the way they cradle their newborns: a relationship — a touch — so full of love and life and potential.
“I wonder what my father thought of me when I was born, what he saw when he held me up to the light and examined me head to toe, what he said to me when I slept, what dreams blossomed in his heart, what fears kept him up at night.
“The problem is, I can’t ask him now, and my mother’s answers won’t suffice. Too bad I didn’t wonder more when he was alive. I was so absorbed in my own world. And he wasn’t much of a talker. There seems to be a built-in detachment among many older Korean men.
“More than two years after my father’s death, I feel compelled to try to extract some profound meaning from our relationship.”
As Ko ends, “Maybe this is just the profound wonder and mystery of fatherhood, and no interpretation is really necessary.”
Maybe so.
Now I’m off to spend the day with my boys. Enjoy your Sunday.