Father's Day to Me.

      Happy Father's Day to you fathers.  Happy Father's Day to the mothers who have gone above and beyond to be both parents.  I understand.  I spent my afternoon at an Aviator's baseball game in Lafayette.  It's a great place to watch a game and it's a lot of fun.  Today, however, I spent a lot more time thinking about life than I normally do at a game.  Before and during the game I watched a younger dad taking his two small children to the game and sit in front of us a few rows down.  Watching fathers spend time with their kids like this always makes me smile.  I don't like the press, television, and the movies and how they portray fathers.  They just about always make us look like buffoons and incompetent idiots.  That's not what I usually see when I cross paths with fathers out in the wild.  I see love, security, and a good time for all.  Like I said, it always makes me smile.  Sometimes I tell them how they are good dads and that I appreciate seeing them interact with their kids.  I hope it means as much to them as it means to me seeing and saying that to them.  But something else really caught my attention today and it hit me, and it made me a little emotional.

     I saw a man standing in the aisle next to me which was odd because no one stands there like that.  Plus, he was half-turned looking at the top of the seating area.  I looked over a little bit later and he was guiding what appeared to be his mother to her seat.  After he got her settled what appeared to be his father followed.  Both were elderly and both had to walk gingerly and with a cane.  After they were seated, I stole a look or two and by this time the son was sitting next to the elderly man.  The guy didn't have much hair like me, and he seemed to be about my age.  At that point, I started making comparisons and started putting myself in his place with my family history.  I started counting on my fingers and in my head how long ago my dad died.  My God, it's been 48 YEARS!  

     I've spent the last several years waiting on a phone call on this day from the two sons who speak to me to get those cherished three words on days like this: HAPPY FATHERS DAY!  It means so much.  Now that they are fathers, they probably understand that feeling.  No one wants to be forgotten.  But as I looked at this family of three across the way, I went the other direction.  I started thinking about my father, who again, died 48 years ago.  I have naturally thought of the lost opportunities and experiences that we missed out on, but today hit me in the face.  This man was enjoying a baseball game with his father, and I never got to do that other than when he and my mother took me to an Indianapolis Indians game when I was little.  But, among the many lost opportunities, I would never get the chance to buy my father a ticket and surprise him or at least take him to enjoy a baseball game together.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not feeling sorry for myself, or complaining, or trying to get attention.  I'm just looking at life and seeing things clearly in this area for perhaps the first time in my life.  

     If you have fences to mend, I recommend that you take the time to mend those fences.  Let the past go if you can.  Once they are gone so is the fence and there ain't no shot at mending anything.  Not here to preach to you, but things happen quickly and unexpectedly.  Don't not do something that you might regret not doing in the future.  (I know.)  So, Charlie, Happy Father's Day.  I hope to see you soon.