Day 22: A Father's Gift
Welcome to Father's Day. The Sines Family - from left: Victoria, Alexandra, Elizabeth, Shawn, Connor & Eva Sines. circa December 2010. I could rant about the point of this holiday (or the lack of one), its commercial nature and the declining seeming socially supported importance of fathers in a modern American society, but I'll try to end all that negative Nancy stuff here. Instead on this day when American society chooses to reflect on the contribution of the male parent, I wanted to talk a little about what I've experienced as a father. I was fortunate, apparently, to have a father in my life -- for my entire life. He's not a candidate for world's greatest dad (most of us aren't), but through his example I learned a lot of things - positive and negative. I learned that our children, no matter how hard we fight it will still expect us to be dad as they grow up. They change and advance rapidly as we begin to stabilize and possibly slow down. They w