Did anyone else have mixed emotions on Father’s Day?
I thought so.
On one hand, I had a great Father’s Day. My wife and our 13-year-old daughter fixed me breakfast, and this time they didn’t try to serve it to me in bed.
I hate breakfast in bed. First of all, I don’t come from breakfast-in-bed people. To me, breakfast in bed should be reserved for older guys who watch the market (whatever that means) and have someone named Jeeves working for them. Jeeves is the sort of name I associate with breakfast in bed.
“Jeeves, this hard-boiled egg is not hard-boiled enough.”
“Yes, sir. I’ll see to it, sir.”
I don’t have a guy named Jeeves working for me, and I feel pretty safe saying that I will never have a guy named Jeeves working for me. Sometimes I have a friend help me move furniture, but I don’t think that counts. Besides, the whole thing wouldn’t sound right.
“Boy howdy, Jeeves, that couch was a heavy son of a gun. What say we get a beer?”
“Now you’re talking, sir.”
The other reason I don’t like breakfast in bed is because it is impossible to eat breakfast in bed. At least it’s impossible for me to eat breakfast in bed. I like biscuits and gravy for breakfast. And fried mush. And sausage. And bacon. And none of those things is easy to eat in bed. About the only thing you can eat in bed for breakfast is fruit or toast. And fruit or toast is not breakfast. Oh sure, it might be a breakfast for one of those starved-for-attention women who go on those “Top Model” reality shows, but it’s not a breakfast for me.
So my wife and Emma didn’t serve me breakfast in bed. They served me breakfast in our dining room, and it was very good.
Later, my wife and Emma gave me some presents. None of them were ties. Two of them were beer.
I liked my presents.
Later still, we relaxed in our yard for a while, and then I watched the St. Louis Cardinals play the Kansas City Royals. I’m a Cardinals fan first and foremost, but I also like the Royals, even though in the past I have had a little fun at their expense. But this year the Royals are pretty good, and this time it looks like they will be pretty good for some time.
The Cardinals won the game via a walk-off home run by Skip Schumaker. If there is a better play than a walk-off home run, I don’t know what it is. Of course, on a bleak note, Albert Pujols got hurt in the game.
But still, all in all, it was a pretty good day.
So why did I have mixed emotions on Father’s Day? Well, because I knew for a fact that this year, a lot of families were having a pretty tough Father’s Day. I knew for a fact that a lot of families, for the first time, didn’t have the guest of honor at their Father’s Day celebration.
Sadly, every year there are families struggling through that first fatherless Father’s Day. That’s life. It’s what happens. It doesn’t make things easier, but that’s what happens.
But this year, more families than normal struggled through a fatherless Father’s Day. Still other families dealt with a Father’s Day minus mothers, sons and daughters. Others still were forced to mark the day while dealing with temporary living accommodations. They were forced to mark the day without most of their belongings.
So on Sunday, it was hard for a lot of us to totally enjoy Father’s Day, and I’m not sure what to do about that. What I did Sunday was remind myself several times just how lucky I was. I took time to remind myself that Sunday was a gift to be treasured. A day not to be taken for granted.
I also told myself that I would try to never again take any day for granted. And I reminded myself to thank my wife and daughter for the gift of a day that they gave me on Sunday.
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Mike Pound: Emotions mixed on Father’s Day
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