No matter how many problems we faced growing up, our Dads just knew exactly what to say. They knew exactly what to do. And they were always right. They’d say, “we were going to be just fine.” And it made us feel better.
Our Dads worked hard, put us through school, played with us and even though we didn’t like it – took lots of pictures of us growing up (glad they did). It seemed like they could tell the future. Because they just didn’t seem so worried about anything. Nothing seemed to shake their unwavering confidence.
As a Dad myself today, I find myself filled with uncertainty at times. Uncertainty about how I’m going to afford to educate my kids in this global world. About the economy. About careers and so on. And I realized that my Dad probably didn’t have it all together as I thought. And when I speak to him he tells me that sure, he was worried about a lot of things but he didn’t worry too much about things that were out of his control. He thinks that we all “worry too much these days when life is a lot easier now than ever.”
The reality is that many of our Dads were just as uncertain about the future as the rest of us are today. But they didn’t let the uncertain future ruin a good time that we were having today. The terrific birthday parties we had or the countless times they drove us to the movies with our friends. They were grateful for what we had and focused on giving us a great childhood. Thanks Dad!
