Father’s Day is a time honored tradition whereby we stop to recognize, thank, and celebrate the fathers and the roles they play in our lives. For me, my father was exceptionally instrumental to my development, maturity, and growth. While I’d like to take full credit for my accomplishments, it was my father who deserves all the sunshine. I am forever indebted for the role that he played in my life.
As a father myself, I was often luke warm on the celebration. Yea, I appreciated the warm gestures, but I always felt uneasy about celebrating something that I was suppose to do; providing, nurturing, teaching, guiding, and loving my kids. Despite my reservations, I accepted the kind acts bestowed upon me with love and appreciation. You know, the ties, socks, communal breakfast and dinner meals, and the perfectly worded cards.
The sweetest gift was not actually a thing at all though. It wasn’t something that could be bought. It wasn’t even something you could place in your hand. It was simply three words, “Happy Father’s Day!” Hearing those words yearly from my kids validated that I was fulfilling my purpose even when I had to occasionally unplug the Play Station. Hearing those words reminded me that I play an extraordinary role in their lives to include occasionally putting the cell phone in “time out”. Finally, hearing those words confirmed for me that I will always be their father through all of life’s ups and downs. What an incredible responsibility.
This year, those words came to me in a way you probably wouldn’t expect. Due to the camp telephone and visitation restrictions, my kids couldn’t speak those words to me like I’d heard so many times beginning when they could talk. I couldn’t hear the love in their voice. I couldn’t connect to the reassuring sounds of their tone. I couldn’t look them in their eyes to see their sincerity. Nevertheless, my kids emailed me those words along with beautiful heartfelt messages. Their messages were uplifting, like “Dad, we miss you!” Their messages were encouraging, like ” Dad, I’m here for you!” Their messages were inspiring like, “Dad, Hold your head up, eyes to the skies, and heart to God!” While I appreciated the personal and sentimental thoughts, not actually “hearing” Happy Father’s Day was different, unusual, and odd.
Right when I felt like I was missing something unique and special, I heard one of the campers say “Happy Father’s Day to another and vice versa. I immediately looked up and watched the exchange. Smiles came across their faces as I assumed they were proud to be dads. By the wide grins, I could tell that while the pain of not being able to hear those words coming from their kids was real, being acknowledged by a peer was some consolation. These exchanges went on throughout the day. They happened so much that I felt remiss in not greeting my fellow campers appropriately. I made the adjustment and got in line. These simple words lifted the camp’s mood in immeasurable ways.
The greetings weren’t the only thing that got my attention. I saw more men on the computer reaching out to their kids with emails than normal. Given that we have limited computers, this undoubtedly created significant wait times. Thank goodness that each camper is only allowed 15 minutes of email sign-in time followed by a 30 minute wait period. Otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have been able to reach my kids till Wednesday…lol I can only imagine what they were saying: “I love you baby!” or “I miss you little man” or “Daddy will be home soon!”
I also noticed communal meals being prepared and served by campers like Hym (yea, that’s right, “Hym”). Just like the delightful mouth-watering meals that my family always prepared for me, these campers have superb culinary skills. From the dorm, cooking delicious burrito bowls, nachos, quesadillas, fried rice, etc.. without the usual ingredients nor cookware is ingenious and requires superb talent. Furthermore, the comradery shared by these fathers breaking bread, reminiscing, and laughing as if they were at a barbeque was a site to behold.
So Father’s Day has now passed, but the Fatherhood spirit was jolted with new life and energy. I’m optimistic and pray that the majority of these men will return to their families and receive the gift of those sweet words that I think we all long to hear from our kids, “Happy Father’s Day Dad!”
