TRANSCRIPT:
This coming Sunday is when we celebrate Father’s Day. Last month, we had a little fun with mothers and word play, so let’s kick off Dad’s Day with the same frivolity!
There have been many famous fathers throughout history. The fellow who makes sure a person ages is Father Time, and while many call this jolly guy Santa, he’s known elsewhere as Father Christmas.
Plenty of you know all about that rhyming female character, but were you aware there was also a Father Goose?
In church, we learned the words, Our Father who art in heaven. In Sunday School, we sang about Father Abraham, meanwhile it was the late George Michael who sang Let me be your father figure.
It was Marlon Brando in his iconic role as the Godfather Don Corleone who wanted to make us an offer we can’t refuse. The Father of modern medicine, Hippocrates, wanted to make us healthy, and his work laid a solid medical foundation for today’s doctors. And our founding fathers wanted to make us a new nation, and through their dedication and sacrifice succeeded.
In the world of TV and movies, we’ve always known that Father Knows Best. We watched the Courtship of Eddie’s Father, and we knew if he ever did re-marry, he would have to face the Father of the Bride.
Your male offspring can be a chip off the old block, but it sounds so much nicer to say Like Father, Like Son.
Whether you refer to him as dad, daddy, pop, papa, pops, dada, baba, papi, daddums, the old man, sire, pater, paw, the patriarch, padre or just plain father….take some time this weekend to celebrate the gentleman who held your hand when you were scared, held you up when you were learning to ride a bike, made you get a haircut when you didn’t want one, made you laugh with the worst possible dad jokes ever, always protected you from the cold, the darkness, the boogey man, and would never let any of the creepies, crawlies, or things that go bump in the night ever hurt you.
If he’s still with you, ask him to tell you his favorite story about you.
If, like my own father, he is no longer with you, celebrate him by telling others your favorite story about him.
Happy Father’s Day.