HAPPY FATHER’S DAY 2020
I don’t often celebrate Father’s Day here on INAM. I’m sure a therapist could have a doozy of a time to figure out why, but I really do think it’s because I have so much else to write about in all the busy previous Junes.
But this year, with so much extra time on my hands, something possessed me to do a YouTube video about this holiday. You can watch it here; just please be aware that I got a tad punchy on it: www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1DgZ5EE6j4. (And after you’ve seen the vid, please come back here and finish reading this column.)
On the video, I tell my most famous family story, (and then some!,) about my own father. So, it got me thinking about him a bit, and about our somewhat rocky relationship, right from the start.
My whole life, I had thought that “pest” was a bad word. It was actually the first word I could spell, because that’s how my father referred to me! But, reading back one of my old Father’s Day columns just now, it hit me that he could have meant it as a cute term, like how Jim Anderson called his daughters “Kitten” and “Princess” on Father Knows Best! How had that concept eluded me for my entire life up until this point? I’m flummoxed!!! I wish I had thought of it before, so I could have embraced it my whole life. Even if he didn’t mean it that way, I could have turned it into a positive in my own mind! (Who needs a therapist when she has her own e-zine?!)
Father Knows Best dad, Jim Anderson, with his daughters Kitten and Princess. And his wife, too, of course.
Anyway, I’m so glad that I came up with that revelation; it’s a Father’s Day miracle! So if you have a similarly troubled relationship with your own sire, maybe this extra time that we all have in our lives in 2020 will allow you to have an equivalent epiphany. I certainly hope that it does.
And now, no matter what else is going on in your lives during these troubled times, I wish all my dad readers and followers a very Happy Father’s Day! (Maybe you should celebrate it at home by watching my crazy Father’s Day video. Here’s that link again: www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1DgZ5EE6j4.)
