Sunday is Father’s Day. We ought to all be out there picking, singing, harmonizing and listening to great bands but circumstances have changed and we must now avoid crowds in order to stay safe and avoid nasty viral infections. It’s not fair but we need to make our lemons into lemonade and count our many blessings. In that vein, I would like to make some comments about what Father’s Day means to me besides having fun at Grass Valley every year.
We fathers are the lucky ones because by definition we have our kids. Whether they are Kids on Bluegrass or not doesn’t matter. We have Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, even Grandparent’s Day, but so much of the joy in life comes from the children that make a father or a mother or a grandparent. Every day should be kids day and I hope that it is that way in most homes. Maybe it’s the kids that really need to have a special holiday because it’s such a privilege to be a parent.
My Father’s Day memories are filled with wonderful moments i have had camping with my daughter and son at Grass Valley for the last fifteen years. They roamed free every Father’s Day weekend among kids their own age and loved it.
My kids are all grown up now but they are still a joy. Still, it sure would be nice to go back to the days when I could push them in the swing bucket “Higher, Daddy, Higher!” until my arms fell off or pull them around behind my bicycle in the baby cart so that they could have a nap or show them how to skip rocks in the river. I can still recite some of Rosemary Wells’s collection of nursery rhymes from heart. A child sitting on your knee hanging on your every word and movement is a whole lot more respect than you get from the average adult.. Coaching your son’s baseball team or helping you daughter with her insanely difficult math homework, you can’t beat that. Maybe someday I can have that bliss as a grandparent.
I almost didn’t make it to fatherhood. Like my younger brother who never married, I am extremely shy. I was forty two years old when I met my future wife. All the good ones had been taken it seemed . Except for this feisty dame who like me loved to ride a bicycle. I was lucky. And we are lucky to have raised two wonderful kids. They could have turned out otherwise and made our lives miserable but they didn’t.
I have many friends whose children didn’t turn out so easy. They still invest a lot of time in trying to help their children through life because that’s what parents do. Every parent wants the best for their child (at least I hope they do). Maybe children are a blessing anyway even if they are a problem because you care and that’s what life should be about.
So all you fathers out there missing a bluegrass festival in your honor, take a deep breath and think about what those kids have done for your life experience.
Happy Father’s Day!
