Father's Day

Today is Father's Day. I'm old enough to remember when there was no such designated day. I was already 42 years old when Father's Day was officially recognized in the U.S..

I'm not sure just what the point of all of these "Days" is. Mother's Day I can understand, in a way. Special recognition of Mother goes back, nearly 2000 years in the Christian community, through the special honour and reverence that has been paid to Mary, Mother of Jesus. Special reverence for mothers and mother figures predate that, probably by thousands of years. And why should that surprise anyone. After all, even the dullest person can appreciate the fact that his/her very existence came about because he/she was born of a woman. The Mother. As such, every day should be Mother's Day. I think that if every day isn't Mother's Day then no day is Mother's Day.

So I believe that it is fit and proper that we should honour and revere our mother.

But as for all of those other "Days" or "Weeks" or "Months" or "Years", I think that we could well do without them. They are more about selling some thing or collecting money for some cause than they are about anything really important. That's not to say that fathers, secretaries, victims of crime or multiple sclerosis aren't important. It's rather that I don't approve of using emotional blackmail to extract gelt from the guileless.

So let's remember mother and father every day and give them the honour and respect that they deserve. I know that there are fathers and mothers who are more deserving of contempt that of respect or love. That doesn't matter. The fact is that they gave us our life. For that we owe them at least our gratitude.