Happy Fathers Day, 2012.
Do not celebrate yet for the job of a father never ends even when your children can say, "Yes, I know Dad"
Do not stop advising your kids even when you hear them say to perfect strangers ... "My father used to say ..."
The job of a DAD is giving unsolicited advice; Being there when they think 'I don't need help Dad'; Cheering
them on with your last breath; Protecting them from themselves and yourself by switching between 'praise'
or 'panic' in your voice as appropriate; Molding them like clay at the hands of a potter and at other times
sharpening their rough edges like the blacksmith.
Your hope is like that of a painter ... to produce the best portrait; the pride of the bricklayer ... to build the
most magnificent edifice. Your job has no definition but it is the most vital of all jobs you will ever hope for; it
has no timing, no ending, no remuneration but it is the most rewarding; the most challenging and a lot of
planning and scraping, sleepless nights and somber moments but nothing more will give you the most hope
to get up and do it all over, again, again and again not knowing what the final result will be.
Dad is a job where there is no accurate test for your efforts; your reward most likely will be reaped by strangers,
enemies and the rest of humanity; your best intentions will earn you rejection, your hard work will be rebuffed as
'mean'; your advice and counsel will not be acknowledged; you will be blamed for failure of others who clearly
refused to heed your warnings; scorned by the world for others failings but no praise for their excellence.
Yet ... be proud to be a dad because it is lucky to be called worthy to help to mold the generation that will posses
this earth after we are long gone. Do it right everyday because someone also so selflessly invested in you to continue
to mold the pillars of our universe. Maybe, if you are lucky your "Happy fathers day" will come. It comes to each man
individually, not on an artificially set date like today. It will come to you personally the day you can poke a perfect
stranger somewhere and point out ..."That's my son". Then and that is the best day in the life of a Dad, that is when
you can stop and say, my job as a Dad is done.
Today, the job continues for each man ... being the best dad you can, teaching by your words and your actions,
building dreams, hopes and confidence to face the future, letting them fall or fail when they must but reassuring that
the measure of their worth is not about failures but in the ability to rise up at each turn, the learning that the hope of
winning comes from the acceptance of the possibility of failures, that success is the sum of failures plus effort,
that experience is the mix of your personal failings and those of others, and that maturity is earned by attention to all
that life and living brings your way. Life is full of successes and failures alike. To live life is to accept all of life's promises
of ups or downs, glory or doom, successes and failures. Yet, life is worth living because tomorrow is always better than
yesterday. Teach your son and every young mind along your way, especially all the fatherless kids out there that because
they have today, they can always make their tomorrow better than any day they have ever lived. You will get a pause, a
ponder, a smile or frown and sometimes a starring into the oblivion. That is your measure that you have challenged a young
mind, that is your cue that you have been a father ... celebrate each of those silent and fleeting moments because you will
not experience the majority of them, but they will be there, even when you are far away or gone.
Have you been a good Dad today???.
Happy father's Day.
... Composed by Charles-Lawrence Abiahu... June 17, 2012.
