F is for….Fathers’ Day
By Baldmichael Theresoluteprotector’sson
I am gap filling again as I try to complete my next post. I did this for when I went live with my site 3 years ago tomorrow. WordPress even sent me a congratulations notification yesterday! How kind (eyes roll). (I actually signed up on the 19th June).
Still, I suppose it is a reminder of how far I have come since then. Anyway, it was Father’s Day in the UK on Sunday I gather. So, 2 days late but better late than never.
I thought I would include a picture. This is called ‘And When Did You Last See Your Father?’ and was by William Frederick Yeames, in 1878.
The tableau was recreated for a play I was in at school when I was, I recall about 12 years old. I played the Roundhead soldier in the beackground sitting on the bench to the left of the little boy in blue.
It might not mean anything to those who haven’t been to boarding school in the UK, but the scene was very short. The officer interrogating the boy says the words ‘And When Did You Last See Your Father?’ to which the boy replies ‘At the quarter term exeat, why?’
An exeat was a long weekend in the quarter and three quarter sections of term in a boarding school.
Anyway, here’s my original article. If you think some it is silly or sentimental, well, that’s just me.
21th June 2020
Today is Fathers’ Day. The day decreed by someone or other, I don’t know who or what. Perhaps the WHO or World Health Organisation. Or should that be the World Wealth Organisation. Not sure they are doing a lot for our health at the moment. But, look on the bright side. Someone is sure to making money out of it and that’s what counts, isn’t it?
No? Perhaps you are right. Anyway, I was thinking about Fathers’ Day. Should have an apostrophe as it is really Day of the Fathers. Perhaps you had forgotten. Or didn’t know. A day when we can remember our forefathers, not just those who we call daddy, or dad, or whatever you do in your native tongue.
When I say forefathers, you can only, of course, have one human daddy, not four. No, I was thinking about “Let us now praise famous men, and our fathers that begat us.” A quote from the book of Ecclesiasticus in the Apocrypha. Apocrypha means hidden, apparently, and I now realise as I type this that I have been stupid. I must look into it, and will no doubt write something, probably under A for….. Apocrypha in due course.
Talking of begat, our forefathers and famous men often wore hats. Big hats. Keeps your head dry if its wet, the sun off if its hot, make you look cool if it’s hot or cold. Winston Churchill had a homburg and he topped a poll for the most famous Briton at the turn of this century. And homburg’s name comes from Bad Homburg in Hesse, German Empire, so Wikipedia says.
I have had another thought. Why is Germany full of Bad places? I know it means Bath, or Spa but….hmmm. Another for my list I think.
Anyway, Winston was a great man, not perfect, but great. And he helped us see off our enemies. Germany, Italy, Japan. We’re good friends now, well, ok, reasonably good friends.
I had a good friend, German by birth, but brought up in this country when he was young. No Italian or Japanese friends sadly. I have never been to Japan, but it looks beautiful from what I can see, from here, on my Cloud.
And my wife and I – did I tell you I had a wife? She hasn’t joined me yet on my Cloud. Well, we knew a beautiful Japanese girl. Impeccable manners, as I imagine most Japanese have. Perhaps you have stories to tell; if you think I should know, you know where I am.
I am wandering a little, but going back, it is good to remember famous men, our forefathers and our own daddy. If he is alive, as mine still is. But perhaps yours is dead, or perhaps you never knew your father as many don’t. Perhaps he died in the War, by which people nowadays usually mean World War II, or any war, or run over by a bus, or murdered.
Many darker skinned men (I really don’t want to call them black for reasons I have explained – see Black lives Matter) in the U.S of A suffer this loss. Barak Obama is reported to have said
Too many black fathers, he said, are missing from too many lives and too many homes. “They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men. We know the statistics — that children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime; nine times more likely to drop out of schools and 20 times more likely to end up in prison,”
It’s from the Washington Post. See link below.
But dangerous myth? Why not part of the Truth? Fatherhood and marriage are institutions, as are governments. Why not problems with them all? Address all these issues?
And who instituted these institutions anyway. A heavenly Father, God and Father, our heavenly Father, or Daddy, or Abba (not the pop group silly). So if you miss or never knew your dad, why not go to Him instead. He really is heavenly you know. He holds me now, in my Cloud, so I don’t fall and hurt myself. And he wipes away the tears that I weep when I think of those without a father.
You might know the story that Jesus told about the lost son. The father in the story was always waiting, looking for the lost son to come back. You may know the son as the prodigal son. In reality, both the father and son were prodigal. The son spent lavishly and wasted it; the father killed the best calf for a party (BBQ anyone? My son is back, let’s boogie!).
God the Father is like that. But as I have said before, you won’t know unless you go and see if it’s true, will you?
P.S. I you want to tell me when you last saw your father please do. I shall not be making notes for the Roundheads!
I am still working on my WHO post.
This is my Black lives Matter article.
And why so many German cities Bad? Here’s a possible reason.
Alas, I lost my biological father a few years ago; but nonetheless, have always relied on our Heavenly Father (aka The Universal Mind) for all my needs. My biological father just was the conduit through which I entered this world. Why I chose him, I don't really know. However, I can say that were it not for him, I wouldn't be here now.