FATHER’S DAY

Elisson’s Dad (L), SWMBO’s Dad (R)

As I write this, She Who Must Be Obeyed and the Mistress of Sarcasm are somewhere in the wilds of northern Louisiana enroute to Chez Elisson, while Elder Daughter is in her Cambridge digs.

It’s just me and the cats today, which means it’s as good a time as any to reflect on the manifold blessings of being a Daddy.

I viewed this whole Fatherhood business with trepidation, if not outright terror, until the moment Elder Daughter arrived on the scene. After that, it was one adventure after another:

• The Fried Rice in the Cheeks…and in the Diaper.
  
• The arrival of the Mistress of Sarcasm after one full month of enforced Laying Around So As Not To Aggravate The Phlebitis.
  
• The Pool o’ Runny Shit at the Fast Food Chicken Place.
  
• Watching Elder Daughter retch into the wastebasket at the hotel while the Mistress went off to the zoo with Mommy.
  
• Listening to Elder Daughter recite Politically Inappropriate Stories, entirely from memory, on an airplane flight.
  
• Leaving Boston after our first Parents’ Weekend, and watching Elder Daughter disappear into the bowels of the T…by herself.
  
• Meeting the Mistress’s Purple-Haired Roommate.
  
• Listening to Elder Daughter deliver a Kol Nidre sermon to a congregation of 2,400 on the holiest night of the year.
  
• Seeing the words “Magna cum Laude” under the Mistress’s name at her college graduation.
  
• Appreciating what my Daddy – and SWMBO’s Daddy – did for us.

Being a Daddy is a team effort, and I owe a lot of my Mad Daddy Skillz to the fact that I am attached at hip and shoulder to the one and only SWMBO, mother of my chillins. But that is a subject for another, lengthier post.

“Daddy.” It’s a title I carry with pride, an accomplishment for which I was trained by riding on the shoulders of giants.

Happy Father’s Day to all you Dads out there! You’ve earned it.