I wrote this a really long time ago in the belief that if I could somehow name the dread/fear that haunted me it would somehow hold less power over my life.
That, as it turned out was either wishful thinking or abject bullshit.
It's said the child is father to the man-sometimes that's not all that's fathered.
Happy Birthday, Dad.
The Birthday Boy |
I don't ever remember celebrating my father's birthday as I grew up. Logic dictates we, our mother (his wife) and my brothers and sisters (his children) must have done so as we did for everyone in our family, and yet every year I struggle and fail to find a single memory of a single moment of that day.
My most lasting memory of my father isn't really a memory of him at all, but a reminder of how life goes on within you and without you. Many years ago while shopping, Sigrid found what she assured me was 'the perfect card for you to send to your dad for Father's Day.'
I don't remember the card, though this would be a better lesson for me if I had, but I signed it, after Sigrid had addressed it, put a stamp on it, and had me throw it in my work bag. And that's where the card stayed.
Dad in his classroom |
What she found that day, and registered a quiet note of disappointment with me because of it, was the card we both thought I had mailed months earlier for Father's Day. Faced with the reality that I hadn't, all I could do was to mumble a promise to do so 'next year'.
You've guessed, of course, that my father died before 'next year' ever happened. As a self-centered oldest child, stiff-necked and incapable of bending, I had clashed with my father nearly every day of my life.
We, the three oldest children had moved out and away, but our three youngest, two sisters and a brother, were left to be raised by our mother in circumstances vastly different from ours when were their ages and I made no effort to ever learn or to attempt to mitigate or improve.
I've never spoken to them about those years and know I'll never do so. More casualties in a war that should have ended decades ago, but continues even as I type this and feel the gorge rise in my veins as if "enough" weren't already, and finally, truly enough.
I am, like it or not, my father's son in ways neither of us could have ever seen or imagined. Perhaps he'd be proud of that, and yet I truly hope not.
Life is a sum of all your moments--waking and dreaming; everything you've done or left undone; every word, said and unsaid, and of all your prayers, answered but, most especially and finally, those unanswered.
No comments:
Post a Comment