Father's Day - Musings about my Father

As I sit here and reflect on Father's Day 2009.. I realize just how much I miss my dad... I really don't need this holiday observance to acknowledge my love for my father. I never have, really... All I ever wanted to do in life was to make him proud of me... And so, I acknowledge the support and love he shared...

A lot if not most of my friends did not have both parents in the home during childhood. It is a rarity that I can discuss childhood in a two parent home with anyone in my camp... It's amazing. When I was younger, sometimes brothas would make it seem like this is a shameful thing to have come from a two parent family. Somehow, Dad being in the home was a signal that I was an Uncle Tom.... Just like reading and speaking well was a badge of selling out... boy, we have some work to do as a people...

I'm grateful that my father was in my life. I learned how to be a man from him. He exposed me to manly things as a boy. I know that in these days and times this could seem chauvinistic or whatever, but the truth is, I was raised by a mans man... He was a military man who's friends and inner circle were men's men... And so that's how I am... A Man's Man...

The most important thing my father taught me was to love the Lord... Shortly before his death, my mother gave me a letter sent to me by dad when I was 3 months old. He had deployed out to sea aboard the USS Eversole. It was a heartfelt correspondence that shared the whole of his wishes for me as his son.... The last line in the letter was implicit instruction for me to love the Lord with all my heart, soul and mind....

I have always kept this instruction in my heart. When I realize that he wanted this for me from the beginning of my life and to see it actually written, I hold it nearer and nearer to my being...

Dad has gone on now. May he rest in peace. I can only pray that I would be even half the man he was... I am not. He was an awesome man. A loyal man. A sober man. A loving man. A stern man. A disciplined man. A spiritual man. A man of ethics and principles.

He was a GREAT father. And I love him.... I miss him... I hope he was proud of me... I am proud of him....