6/21/2026

Happy Father’s Day

Will all of your children be with you at Camp David today? What does your family do to celebrate this occasion?

Father’s Day is a challenge for me. My dad wasn’t into it. He said it was a Hallmark holiday & he wanted nothing to do it with it. Yet, my mom insisted we do something. I can’t remember exactly what we did, but my guess is we had a nice breakfast together in the dining room after church & gave him some lame gifts, maybe a tie, maybe a screwdriver, maybe a new can of tennis balls, & he pretended to be delighted. The challenge was my dad had all of the material things he needed, so presents were not fun for him. What he loved best of all was a “win,” beating someone fair & square after an intense battle. We couldn’t give him that because we weren’t his equals in anything, be it a political argument, a running race or a tennis match. He sometimes satisfied this yen in his work, but most of the time he went around itching for a fight. In any case,  the performance of Father’s Day was quite lackluster in my home.

I worry that your Father’s Day may be similarly lackluster. I worry that you want more from your children than they can give you. I worry that you desire your God-shaped hole to be filled by your offspring, which they could never do. 

Only you can address your longings & loneliness, but it would require acknowledging, what Blaise Pascal called, the “infinite abyss” that affects us all from time to time. You’d need to muster up some humility & that’s not your strong suit.

I posit that MAH faces the same existential angst & his attempts to dominate others continue to leave him feeling bereft. Perhaps you, two, could start a therapy group to cope with your fears so you’d stop using violence as a tool to satisfy your unquenchable needs.

I fear I am getting carried away in trying to imagine a brighter future. I do hope you can find some joy in your day.

BYBS,