WHAT IS A FATHER?
A father is a person who's forced to endure childbirth without any kind of anesthetic.
He growls when he feels good and laughs very loud when he is scared half-to-death.
A father never feels entirely worthy of the love and adoration in his children's eyes. He is never quite the hero his daughter thinks; never quite the man his son believes him to be. And this worries him sometimes, so he works twice as hard to smooth out the rough places his children might need to follow.
A father is a person who goes to war sometimes ... and he would run the other way except that war is an important job to him, and that job is making the world a safer place for his children.
Fathers grow old faster than other people, because they, in other wars, have to stand at the station and wave goodbye to the uniforms that are leaving, knowing what they are going into.
And while mothers cry where it shows, fathers stand and beam a smile ... and they cry and sometimes die on the inside.
Fathers are men who give their daughters away to other men who aren't nearly good enough so they can have grandchildren that are smarter than anybody's.
Fathers fight dragons almost daily. They hurry away from the breakfast table and off to the arena, which is sometimes called an office, or a factory. There they tackle a dragon with three heads, which are named Weariness, Work, and Monotony. They fight with thin weapons called Commitment, Duty, and Faith. And they never quite win the fight, but they never give up.
Knights wear shining armor, fathers wear shiny trousers. And there's really very little difference.
And when Father passes away, there will be a huge hole left in the hearts and lives of those that loved him most but he will never be forgotten. We have to remember...he is not dead....he only sleepeth and we must live so as one day, we will see him again.
