My father and I had a very strained relationship when I was growing up. It wasn't the only one, as near as I can determine as all six of us had relationships with him that sometimes were difficult to put into words.
It was only after I was a father myself that a lot of what he didn't say at the time started to make sense for me, not that I ever shared those insights with our two children (tradition is tradition and the Irish and their secrets must be respected at all costs and times).
My father was a far more complex person than I, who, by comparison, is very much the simple shit I always strove to avoid becoming. His words, both what he said and how he said it, commanded attention and respect, and the way he lived, much to my dismay as I enter my dotage, has been my example of how I, too, have lived.
Not so much the path I've chosen as the path which chose me.
-bill kenny
