Pater Steel

Well today is father’s day and that always brings thoughts back to my own dad.  While he was a flawed man who made some very hurtful decisions, he was gone before I had a chance to relate to him man to man.  He was killed in a car accident the summer after I graduated from college and I’ve never really been able to say goodbye to him because of his chosen absence during the last years of his own life.  I did try to be the father to my own kids that my father didn’t get a chance to be.

He was in the US Navy during World War 2 and served in the Pacific Theater.  I hear people espousing revisionist history decrying the use of atomic weapons to end the war and know there were several million serviceman and all of their families back home who would violently disagree.  The next step, absent the bombs, was an invasion of the Japanese home islands where casualties were estimated at in excess of a million US servicemen.  One of those would probably have been my dad who drove the amphibious landing crafts that suffered a high casualty rate.  So no bomb, no dad, and no me.

My Dad in WW2

Thanks Dad for your service and I like to think he would have grown into the man I know he could be.  One of my biggest regrets is that he didn’t get to meet his grandchildren – he would have loved them.

Speaking of those grandchildren, one of them, my daughter, did her level best to make me feel special yesterday.  She’s battling a bad throat but she didn’t let that slow her down as we shared our mutual fascination with the movies.  She and her mother teamed up to barbecue some truly memorable steaks as well.  My daughter and I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning watching my favorite movie of last year, Cloud Atlas, which she hadn’t seen yet.  It’s a great movie for movie fanatics to watch together.  A time I will treasure forever.

My Two Ladies Working Hard to Make Me Feel Special Yesterday

Earlier in the day we went to see Man of Steel at the theater.  It’s a much darker take on the Superman legend.  My wife was really taken with the new actor playing the lead.  She was emoting vigorously anytime he appeared on screen without his shirt on – I guess I‘ll have to start working out more.  I know the film hasn’t been reviewed very well but I liked it.  There was a little too much of fights between people who couldn’t hurt each other but the action was relentless and spirited. 

Dark But Good