It’s Father’s Day. A day for a card or two, a new tie, maybe breakfast in bed or a nice dinner out. But have you noticed? There’s something off-kilter about a culture that spends 364 days a year belittling dear old dad, then turns around to “honor” him on one Sunday in June.
Sadly, we live in a time and place where dads are often viewed or portrayed as: 1) Bumbling oafs who can’t tie their shoes without written instructions; 2) Insensitive clods and boorish louts or; 3) Invisible and irrelevant. Like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich without peanut butter. Or jelly. Or bread.
What Does It Mean?
There’s a fair amount of confusion about what constitutes a “real dad.” Some equate dadness with volume, brute force, or beer bellies. They think the dude who sires a string of children and then disappears without a trace makes the yahoo a “father.” Or “Dad” is the lunkhead who throws his weight around because there’s plenty of it. There’s a word for these kinds of guys. And it’s not “dad.” (Since this is a G-rated blog, you’ll have to fill in the blanks yourself.)
Real Dads
Real Dads can be hard to find these days. There are plenty of fakes – just turn on the TV - but the Real Deal is still around. And often unsung.
A Real Dad is decent, hard-working, and upstanding. A Real Dad takes his family, job, and responsibilities seriously. He gets outside himself to benefit others. A Real Dad puts his family first. Even when it’s “inconvenient.” Sometimes especially when it’s inconvenient.
Faucets, Flicks and Foregoing
Real Dads fix leaky faucets. Hang pictures or wall paper (without killing anyone). Walk on the outside of the sidewalk, nearest the street. Endure chick flicks without complaint. A Real Dad may toil long hours in a thankless job to keep a roof over his family’s heads and put food on the table. Forego Monday Night Football to cheer a child’s Little League game. Put up a tent in the rain. Do dishes, clean up dog barf, teach junior how to slide into second without breaking anything, or stay home with the kids so Mom can have lunch with the ladies.
Go Get Them
Real Dads take 1:00 a.m. phone calls in the middle of a sleep-over – come get me Daddy, I’m scared – and break every land-speed record on the books in the process. They attend daughter’s tea parties, scrunch their knees into their chins in those made-for-kindergartener chairs, down gallons of pretend tea and wear those funny little party hats like they’re dining with royalty. Because they know they are.
They may not always know how to express themselves. Real Dads may have a hard time finding the words to tell the wife and kids how much they mean to him. So they do instead of say, speaking the language of self-sacrifice, service and grace.
Real Dads:
- Stand for the National Anthem. They remove their hat, hold it over their heart and sing about rockets’ red glare, and bombs bursting in air as their eyes mist.
- Don coat and tie and conduct somber graveside services for dead gold fish and neon tetras.
- Burn Christmas Eve and the wee hours of morning assembling a brand new purple Schwinn.
- Open those stupid pickle jar lids.
- Spend an entire afternoon traipsing from store to store in the mall, pretending they’re having a great time.
- Say Yes when they can and No when they should.
- Have arms that embrace, shield and protect. Their shoulders are big enough to ride, cry on, and hide behind.
- Pray. And teach their kids to pray.
- Are never quite thanked enough.
Real Dads cement a protective wall around their fam as no one else can. Real Dads stand on that wall, often alone, and patrol. Real Dads put any lurking menace or stalking evil on notice with, “Not on my watch. You’ll have to come through me first, and I’m here for keeps.”
How do I know? Because my dad was a Real Dad. And not just on one Sunday in June.
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