A Grateful Thought for Father's Day
When I worked as the Protestant Chaplain in the largest men's prison in Maryland I was pleased, and quietly moved, to discover that greeting card companies would regularly send an abundance of assorted cards into the prison. This was so that inmates could keep a connection with their beyond-the-walls family and friends.
Despite there being 2,700 men behind that particular razor wire, there was enough for each man to have five cards a month, if they so wished. They just had to put a request slip in to come to the chaplain's office and the chapel clerk would help them get their cards.
Before Mother's Day we were besieged. It seemed like the majority of men in that place wanted cards for their mothers, grandmothers, wives, and baby mommas.
Before Father's Day, however, there was hardly a ripple. We had Father's Day cards but they were rarely requested.
I often wondered if the lack of interest in that particular day's cards had a direct correlation to bad or absent fathering, and if that was the bedrock reason for many of the men being incarcerated in that bleak place.
So on this Father's Day I want to thank all men who have been solid rocks for their own offspring. I count my husband among them. He is a wonderful father to his two adult children, and the loveliest Opa to six beloved grandchildren. Indeed he is a child-whisperer.
Children, all children, rightfully adore him.
Then I want to thank all those men who have fathered other people's kids, emotionally, financially, spiritually, or all of the above. Thank you for caring for step-children, lonely kids, students, kids in theater productions, or on sports teams. Thank you for being an example, a beacon of hope, a safe place.
And perhaps a reason some of them stay on the right side of the bars.
Thank you to all the dads who do the best they can despite the life-cards they've been handed.
Thank you for making a difference.
And whether you get a card or not - to all the dads out there - Happy Father's Day!