Fathers: larger than life
The father is an ordinary man, says my That's Men for You column in today's Irish Times. He has the strengths and weaknesses of ordinary men. But unless you have been desperately unlucky your father's strengths will seem quite extraordinary and his weaknesses relatively insignificant or, if not insignificant, forgivable. The column is part of the Irish Times' premium content so I can't reproduce it here.
In a sense, we never stop looking at our fathers through the eyes of the child to whom he is an almost magical figure of great power, the column says. I suppose that's something that we fathers have going for us. We may feel dissatisfied with ourselves or only too aware of our shortcomings but our children, generally, know nothing of this.
The column was partly inspired by this entry in Paul Newton's Newton's Laws blog.....
2 comments:
Hi
I read you column yesterday, thought about it, and reached the conclusion that I do not know what you were talking about. My father died at the age of 71 in 1970 I was 28 at the time and married three years.
I asked my wife, who had also read your column, did she know what you were talking about and her answer was, no.
Dominic,
Well, I guess that makes two of us because I don't know what you're talking about either.
Padraig
Post a Comment