... this June carries with it a preoccupation with football ... for a growing number of us the quadrennial
World Cup has the power to obliterate other concerns and commemorations ... for me, mid-June dates also prompt thoughts on fatherhood ...
Father's Day falling, as it does, on or around my dad's birthday of June 19th ...
... the late Doctor, seen here c.1972 if memory serves me, surveying the kingdom of
San Francisco, had journeyed there from
Jamaica to be inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons (
F.A.C.S.) ...
four
more letters to add to the
M.D.,
F.R.C.S. ... all of which featured on letterhead, and in bronze on his office-door at
Spanish Town Hospital ...
... he lived long enough to experience grandfatherhood through me and narrowly missed the birth of my twin nephews, but ... the old man survives in memory and photographs as we fast-forward through next generations, where it is left to his progeny, my brother and I, to buck trends of errant fatherhood in raising our own children ...
... we've all heard the platitude "
they grow up so fast," - more a measure of our unceasing wonderment at creation of life and lives, than any exponential increase in physicality and size ... still, it's probably true that today's wired world thrusts wider variety of adult behaviour on
ever younger people ...
... anyhow ... grow up they do and adults they become ... as parents it's hard not to feel pride and joy when children emerge through developmental stages or achieve something they've put effort into ... this year,
Father's Day found me counting extra blessings for I was now a positively proud
Papa to a bonafide University Grad. ... I conspired to attend the ceremony, happily capturing images from my seat in the wings of the crowded
Toronto auditorium ...
... watching kid number one ... it seemed only a short while ago she was reading
Dr. Seuss and
Shel Silverstein ... now she was holding a Bachelor's degree in
Journalism ... the latest achievement in a life that has consistently lived up to promise ... my pride in her must have bolstered her own pride in herself , strengthening self-esteem - a crucial requirement for dealing with future challenges, over which I'm certain she'll prevail ...
... kid number one-too ... calling him
number two is not an option (wink) ... only sixteen months her junior, is also a source of Papa-pride ... with a different flava ... he's taken to rapping alongside a seventies-style rock band in
Vancouver ... handling covers and original rhymes with a flair to make this musically keen Dad proud and slightly jealous ... y'see, every actor is a wannabe musician, in the same way so many singers seem to want movie careers ...
... his rude-boy rap, wisely minimising cliche and nodding consciously toward graffiti-ganja culture is spiced mildly with a ragga-reggae vibe in homage to his Van-sterdam/Jamaican roots ... old-school lyrical flow melds creatively with cool-classic rock runs provided by his band of talented homies, and it all comes together nicely in concert ... seen 'em gig twice now and swell with pride looking at the pics I took ... that he still persists at the day-job
doubles my respect ... hey, it's a Dad's prerogative ...
... they're grown now yet they'll always be my kids ... the ones who ultimately taught me the truth behind some of
my father's more curmudgeonly pronouncements, particularly the common admonishment "
wait 'til you have kids of your own"... loosely interpreted, and giving the benefit of doubt, he could have simply meant "
fatherhood is one helluva ride" ...
... the eight year old step-daughter I'm helping to raise now asked for a second helping of broccoli tonight ... I felt that familiar approving pride ... here we go again, aren't kids supposed to gag on the greens? ...
... I guess it's all relative ... pun intended ...
... rockin' Mos Def and Q-Tip all day in his honor will have his full approval ... the kid's musicality comes via osmosis I suppose, such is the soundtrack to his life ... only he among his kin actually makes music, using voice and rhyme as instrument ... cool move too, linking with Pigeon Park homies to push seventies-style rock-pop, liberally fused with ragga-tinged hip-hop commentary ... part of the weed-wise Vancouver music scene bubbling out of Gastown bongs ...
