Happy Father's Day

When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.
~ Mark Twain, "Old Times on the Mississippi" Atlantic Monthly, 1874

This quote is my favorite among the slim pickins' of Father's Day material I can find. In comparison, poetry books and internet quote sites alike abound with Mother's Day material. I'm not sure why, but it seems in our society the role of father has always been secondary to that of mothers. And it seems to be getting worse.
When I was growing up fathers played a less active role in the home. They went to work early in the morning and came home late at night and the work they did at home usually consisted of yard work. Maybe then, it was that they were seen less often.
Now days we have lots of stay-at-home dads, and I for one like the trend.
Even the dads that work outside the home seem to take a more active role in taking care of the children. I hope this will result in more nice poems and quotes. Fathers need to be celebrated as much as mothers, but instead they've become the butt of jokes. Just turn on the t.v. and you see them depicted as bumbling household idiots in most of today's sitcoms. Hopefully the result won't be that less children grow up to appreciate, as Mark Twain did, the wisdom of their old man.
Some would say that both Mother's Day and Father's day are just Hallmark Holidays, but I did some research and it just isn't true (see the excerpt from wikipedia that follows). Fathers as well as mothers need to be celebrated, so if your Dad's still around make sure he has a special day this Sunday. If he's not, find someone who is a Dad, and help him celebrate fatherhood.


It took many years to make the holiday official. In spite of support from the YWCA, the YMCA, and churches, Father's Day ran the risk of disappearing from the calendar. Where Mother's Day was met with enthusiasm, Father's Day was often met with laughter. The holiday was gathering attention slowly, but for the wrong reasons. It was the target of much satire, parody and derision, including jokes from the local newspaper Spokesman-Review. Many people saw it as the first step in filling the calendar with mindless promotions.

Looking for Inspiration

“I write when I’m inspired, and I see to it that I’m inspired at nine o’clock every morning.”- Peter De Vries

It’s tempting to blame the lack of inspiration on mere procrastination, but Peter De Vries understood that inspiration dwelled within. He didn’t go looking for it, nor did he sit around and wait for it to show up; he just got up every morning and turned it on like punching a time clock.

I admire his discipline, but for him writing was evidently a nine to five job, which is exactly the lifestyle I’ve chosen to eschew, or more accurately, the one I escaped from in the nick of time, dragging to safety by a loose thread my authentic self, while trying to kick off the greed monster who had sunk its sharp teeth into my right ankle; all this while searching desperately for the key that would unlock the golden handcuffs that bound me to that damned clock!

Now that I’m free, and living a totally new lifestyle (is this what being in the witness protection program feels like) I’m just not willing to punch that clock.

Even so, I refuse to succumb to procrastination. I keep my commitments without having to look for inspiration. After all they’re the commitments I freely chose for myself. Okay, with the exception of, scrubbing the floor; that one’s a trade-off, and the inspiration comes from knowing someone else will mow the lawn.

So while I know inspiration can be called upon when needed, I prefer sometimes to let it come to me rather than to try to turn it on based on a set schedule. It seems to know when the time is right. If I need to prepare for a class, there’s no use looking for inspiration to work on memoir, its just not going to come without a struggle. If a scene from my past is stuck in my head, I may as well not even think about trying to prepare a presentation. I get the scene on paper, and lo and behold, I’m inspired to get ready for that class.

And now if you’ll excuse me, my muse is calling; not to write or teach, but to scrub the floor. Oh wait a minute, that’s not my muse, it’s just a lawn mower outside my window.