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Happy Father's Day!
Jun. 19th, 2011 02:30 pmI have a very ambivalent relationship with my father for a great many reasons, but today I want to focus on the gifts that he has given me and the values that he has instilled in me throughout my life.
He gave me a dedication to environmentalism and conservationism, and taught me to see the natural world around me as something to be respected and explored.
He gave me the courage of my convictions: he taught me that moral choices may have negative consequences, but he never spoke of the powerful and controversial choices in his own life with regret, even when he was bitter.
In that same vein, he gave me my interest in and dedication to nonviolent protest, activism, and pacifism. It's true that my mother contributed greatly to these things as well, but her contributions were more intellectual or emotional, where his was visceral and oriented in practical action. While I respect my mother's commitment to these things, it's my father's stories of burning draft files and spending time in prison that made me feel a personal connection to activism and protest, and an interest in the lives, acts, and words of more prominent activists.
Though he himself may have repented this gift, he taught me to love science fiction. Star Trek and Star Wars were gifts he bestowed on me, in a way... the first movie I remember seeing with him next to me was The Wrath of Khan; and I remember, at three or four years old, having an excruciating, terrifying earache, and having him tell me to endure, like Luke Skywalker when he had his hand cut off. These days he has less time for fiction, it seems, but my deep and abiding love of science fiction is, to me, a great and precious gift, one of the best things he has ever given me.
Thanks, CT.
He gave me a dedication to environmentalism and conservationism, and taught me to see the natural world around me as something to be respected and explored.
He gave me the courage of my convictions: he taught me that moral choices may have negative consequences, but he never spoke of the powerful and controversial choices in his own life with regret, even when he was bitter.
In that same vein, he gave me my interest in and dedication to nonviolent protest, activism, and pacifism. It's true that my mother contributed greatly to these things as well, but her contributions were more intellectual or emotional, where his was visceral and oriented in practical action. While I respect my mother's commitment to these things, it's my father's stories of burning draft files and spending time in prison that made me feel a personal connection to activism and protest, and an interest in the lives, acts, and words of more prominent activists.
Though he himself may have repented this gift, he taught me to love science fiction. Star Trek and Star Wars were gifts he bestowed on me, in a way... the first movie I remember seeing with him next to me was The Wrath of Khan; and I remember, at three or four years old, having an excruciating, terrifying earache, and having him tell me to endure, like Luke Skywalker when he had his hand cut off. These days he has less time for fiction, it seems, but my deep and abiding love of science fiction is, to me, a great and precious gift, one of the best things he has ever given me.
Thanks, CT.
