Many Fathers Are Gone

"Many fathers are gone.  Some leave, some are left.  Some return, unknown and hungry.  Only the dog remembers.  Even if around, most disappear all day, to jobs their children only slightly understand.  Gone to office, gone to shop, men in suits hiding behind closed doors, yelling into phones, men in coveralls, reading pornography in pickup trucks.  The carpenter. The electrician.  They drive to stranger's houses , a woman in a robe answers the door, they sit at the table with her, she offers coffee and cake, they talk about the day ahead.  By nightfall you won't recognize the bathroom, he promises.  Monday we start on the roof."

(excerpt from Another Bullshit Night In Suck City by Nick Flynn)

We were born to be a fatherless generation.  How is this cycle to change?  When does a Father rise up to begin a new tradition when he comes in a  long line of fathers who have had no ongoing connection with their children and their wives.  It would seem to be a miracle if this were to occur and last into succeeding generations. 

I find it all too easy to avoid my own children through out the day and only talk to them about picking up their wet towels off the bathroom floor and reminding them about taking the dishes to the kitchen and emptying the trash on Wednesday.  I have to revisit the notion that my life and my children's lives are all woven together.  I can't truly have a full and potent life with out the children deeply embedded within my life in a meaningful way.  This morning I remind myself that the time of having the children at home is a truly precious time and will never be repeated in the same way. I can think of few things that could be more worth fighting to protect.