PROJECT PRAVDA: Carry on my Wayward Son…
father and sons
Considering this is my year to get better, it would have been apropos that I at least try to be a better son to my dead father and acknowledge Father’s Day. The fact is, it slipped my mind. I haven’t given much thought to Father’s Day since dad died – which is no excuse really, since I’m not sure I gave that much thought to it while he was still alive.
I suppose we both share the blame for that. As I’ve mentioned before, my dad was cursed with a crippling inability to express his feelings, an affliction made no easier by the fact that he was in 40s with five kids and a monumentally bitchy wife when I came along. By that time, his principal desire in life was for peace, and he often found it at the expense of teaching his sons to be men. I mistook this as a sign of ambivalence, and simply responded in kind.
However, that’s not to say that my dad wasn’t a good man. Gerald Nelson may not have been perfect but he possessed many manly virtues, among them being…
Leora Kornfeld
Chris, a very moving tribute to the big guy. I still recall you saying, around the time he passed away, that he became more present than ever in your life. That must have been at least a dozen (?) years ago yet it has stuck with me.
I also recall you quoting him to the effect of laying low and prospering…what was the exact line? (and what was the context?)
That philsophy, while charming, does not seem in keeping with the description of the man here.