Happy Father's Day

My Dad hamming it up with an old copy of RF.

I woke up to a barrage of sales ads from dozens of companies in my email.  From Amazon to iTunes to sporting goods companies and even Bed Bath & Beyond, since I'm a Dad, they obviously think I'm going to spend the day chasing down their bargains.

It was the perfect opportunity to use and abuse my delete button. I chose not to open a single one of these obnoxious attempts for marketing managers to take one more shot at the American public.

I decided to chase down the origin of Father's Day and even Wikipedia didn't say much. Their most helpful sentence was, "Father's Day was created to complement Mother's Day, a celebration that honors mothers and motherhood."

So, I went off in search of the origin of Mother's Day, which, while it has some solid substance, didn't say much more. However, it was started by Anne Jarvis in the early 1900's. She promoted the day to honor the continuation of her mother's work in working with injured soldiers in the Civil War, which had evolved into a focus on public health issues. It was never intended to be buried in commercialism.

So, now that I've added a little useless information to your morning, if nothing else you're more informed. For me Father's Day is simply a day when I'm going to do more of what I should be doing all year long. It's a day for me as a son, to remind Pop, how important he is to me...how grateful I am for all the things he tried to teach me as a kid, recognizing that every lesson didn't always sink in, but I understand them all now. It's amazing how much smarter our parents get as we get older. LOL

Today is a day when I'm off the hook on my own domestic responsibilities and can enjoy my appreciation for my family. When I was twelve and people would ask me, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" my answer was always the same, "A Dad!" I got my wish.  As a result my life is richer, even with some of the challenges here and there.
 
So, to my own Dad, who we're getting out to lunch with today, Happy Father's Day Pop, I sure do love ya. I've got the perfect Father's Day present, but have to wait until you've heard about it to share with my readers. It's worthy of a future blog post later this week.

To my children, thank you for making my life richer and to all of my friends, associates and readers who are also dads, Happy Father's Day.

As I say every Sunday, make it a day to remember. Hug your family, appreciate them and remember, without them Father's Day would be like Valentine's Day when you're single!

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