Submitted by: Lisa Guidroz
A father is a thing that is forced to endure childbirth
without an anesthetic.
A father is a thing that growls when it feels good......and laughs very loud when it's
scared half to death.
A father is sometimes accused of giving too much time to his business when the little ones
are growing up.
That's partly fear, too.
Fathers are much more easily frightened than mothers.
A father never feels entirely worthy of the worship in a child's eyes. He's never
quite the hero his daughter thinks........never quite the man his son believes him to
be.........and this worries him, sometimes. So, he works too hard to try and smooth
the rough places in the road for his own who will follow him.
A father is a thing that gets very angry when the first school grades aren't as good as he
thinks they should be. He scolds his son .......though he knows it's the
teacher's fault.
A father is a thing that goes away to war........ sometimes..........
And learns to swear and shoot and spit through his teeth and would run the other way
except that this war is part of his only important job in life.......which is making the
world better for his child than it has been for him.
Fathers grow old faster than people.
Because they, in other wars, have to stand at the train station and wave goodbye to the
uniform.......as his son climbs aboard......
And while mothers can cry where it shows, fathers have to stand there and beam outside...
and die inside.
Fathers have very stout hearts, so they have to be broken sometimes or no one would know
what's inside.
Fathers are what give daughters away to other men who aren't nearly good enough.......so
they can have grandchildren that are smarter than anybody's.
Fathers fight dragons.......almost daily.
They hurry away from the breakfast table .......Off to the arena which is sometimes called
an office or a workshop........
There, with calloused, practiced hands they tackle the dragon with three heads......
Weariness, Work, and Monotony.
And they never quite win the fight.....but, they never give up.
Knights in shining armor..... Fathers in shiny trousers.....There's little
difference......As they march away to each workday.
Fathers make bets with insurance companies about who'll live the longest.
Though they know the odds, they keep right on betting...... more and
more.
And one day they lose the bet.
But a father enjoys an earthly immortality........ and the bet's paid off to the part of
him he leaves behind.
I don't know where a father goes when he dies.
But I've an idea that after a good rest....... wherever it is........He won't be happy
unless there's work to do.
He won't just sit on a cloud and wait for the girl he's loved and the children she
bore......
He'll be busy there, too........
Repairing the stairs
Oiling the gates
Improving the streets........
Smoothing the way
(author: Paul Harvey)
My mother gave me this newspaper clipping when I was very young. I would like to extend my gratitude to my father and to my husband for each being the kind of father my mother told me about ... once ... a long time ago.
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