Today in the year, 2012, is Father’s Day, and Sunday, so hinting that there is a break in common daily life to give special attention to Dad, to Papa, to Father. Presumably the thoughts and good wishes of the day relate to the positives in the family. I have not seen articles or heard programs, on this day, that disparage one’s father, or even refer to his faults. Being an election year in 2012, I have heard or read of the extolling of his father by Mitt Romney the aspirant for the presidency of the United States, of even the father of Barack Obama, the sitting president, who evades critique of his father, though that father was absent from family responsibility. The children of the Sargent Shriver family, engaged with the John Kennedys, honored their father today on television referring to his person, his objectives, his effectiveness, and his decline into Alzheimer’s disease to death. One might continue indefinitely the stories of the memories of children loving their fathers, and loved by them – men common or high achievers, famous or infamous. One daughter of an eminent criminal operative for years felt she had to tell her story of her father who, for her: was loving and helpful, not like he was in public life. She wanted people to know that. It gave her peace.
I am living long past the average age of death for human males or females. The wonderful things of my public and social life are completed, for good or ill. This week I will turn down an invitation to speak at a fine church 2,000 miles from my residence. I am now too old to travel alone responsibly. There are only a few factors remaining to me that tie me to natural life and earth. I gained education, and was rewarded by a career that made use of that education and other personal goals. The events and experiences one hopes for in context occurred for me. The story of details and appreciation is not necessary here. What is left? Professionally I have only one goal – to complete these Pages for my family generations, for Christian students, for any who are interested in considering the details of one Christian life that may be helpful in formulating the stories of other Christian lives. Personally, today I want only to sense my experience of love and involvement, through good (almost always) and bad (very seldom) with my children, their mates, their children – and their children’s children. I could never have guessed that the range and intensities would be as wide as they are proving to be – when I project beyond my children. My children (4+mates) seem like one to me, not only in their relationship to me, but in their relationships with each other. Generations following them provide ranges of my experience and contact. Spiritually, my interests are to find the growth of Christian life and grace for my life that includes knowledge of God, of prayer, of courage to others for full life as God means for those who choose it. In all this there is preparation for transitions.
But today is Father’s Day which, for me, is Family Day. The story of a father is not what he thinks of himself, but what his wife and their children think of him – or wish they did. They tend to downplay any negatives, unless grossness has become too great. Together we have procreated what God created – family. God created, we procreated – similar in some important ways, and an analogy to the way God works. The will and love of God, and an ideal for sharing divine life motivated the creation of the human race. The will of man and wife is presumed to be similar – the love, the will, and the fulfillment of fellowship in love and virtue are ideal in the family. That is so magnificent that Christians are most complimented when they feel their children have been accepted in God’s beloved family providing immortality. What was begun becomes an idealistic conclusion – never ending. Ultimately, all Christians belong to one family. Today I will have talked with each of my children, already done with one that included a supply of my favorite almonds. Her sister just spent a week with me, and has returned to her work and home far away. She will call tonight as before. The boys will see me or call this afternoon. The cards I receive from my children are keepers for a while to be re-read and displayed on my desk. If space permitted and readers were patient to receive observations, I would defend my point that today a father feels he has contributed to himself and society when there is family love and care – all around. One of the ugliest talents found in mankind is that which finds ways of breaking or distorting family privilege and duty. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020