Fathers Day

[Jeanne]

While listening to a Mother's Day sermon in 1909, Sonora Smart Dodd thought of the idea for Father's Day. Having been raised by her father, William Jackson Smart, after her mother died, Sonora wanted to honor her father, wanted to express appreciation of his parental sacrifices, his courage, selflessness, and love. Sonora's father was born in June, so she chose to hold the first Father's Day celebration in Spokane, Washington on the 19th of June, 1910.

In 1926, a National Father's Day Committee was formed in New York City.
Father's Day was recognized by a Joint Resolution of Congress in 1956.
In 1972, President Richard Nixon established a permanent national observance of Father's Day to be held on the third Sunday of June.

I honor Sonora's loving intention with this post and am inspired how a single idea, born of a daughter's respectful volition, became a national holiday honoring all fathers.

[Melanie Worman]

"Some of them don't deserve to be honoured" was my gut reaction to Sonora's loving intention.

When my mother passed over, my father dumped my brother and I (aged 7 and 5) in a children's home. There was no indication of any parental sacrifice. When he remarried 3 years later we were placed with a stepmother who resented us and made our lives a misery. He only removed us from the children's home because it would have reflected badly on his political career. No indication of any selflessness. My father's love for me was expressed through sexual abuse from a very early age. No indication of unconditional love. And yet..............

And yet........ we are Architects of a New Dawn.

This Sunday I shall honour my father for the gifts he bestowed on me. My ability to challenge and speak out when others are silent, my leadership skills, my straight talking and directness, my tenacity of spirit, my fight for the underdog, the vulnerable, the oppressed and the dispossesed. These were all gifts that I received from him.

And most of all I shall honour him for the gift of life.

[Jeanne]

I really admire your "straight talking and directness". I am so sorry for the little girl that you once were... and I salute the woman you have become... allowing the wounds to strengthen you and become remembrances of your rise above them.

Posting Sonora's contribution to fathers day, was not really to honor my bio father either. My paternal step-grandfather and paternal grandmother raised me, loved me and provided me with a safe and secure home.

My bio father was a sperm donor... thats about all. I realize now that he must have recognized his limitations and was honest about them... cuz I have come to believe that bad parents can be worse than no parents. So perhaps in his way... he did me a favor, got out of the way and let someone more interested in my well-being take over.

But I know many good fathers... including my son. It is they I was thinking about when I posted.


Melanie Worman said:

"Some of them don't deserve to be honoured" was my gut reaction to Sonora's loving intention.

When my mother passed over, my father dumped my brother and I (aged 7 and 5) in a children's home. There was no indication of any parental sacrifice. When he remarried 3 years later we were placed with a stepmother who resented us and made our lives a misery. He only removed us from the children's home because it would have reflected badly on his political career. No indication of any selflessness. My father's love for me was expressed through sexual abuse from a very early age. No indication of unconditional love. And yet..............

And yet........ we are Architects of a New Dawn.

This Sunday I shall honour my father for the gifts he bestowed on me. My ability to challenge and speak out when others are silent, my leadership skills, my straight talking and directness, my tenacity of spirit, my fight for the underdog, the vulnerable, the oppressed and the dispossesed. These were all gifts that I received from him.

And most of all I shall honour him for the gift of life.

[Melanie Worman]

Bless your son Jeanne and all the magnificent fathers like him. Your words to me were warming and I agree with you completely that "bad parents are worse than no parents". It took years of therapy to heal those wounds! As I write this a ray of sunlight has bounced off a crystal onto a painting of my spirit guide, Ho, who is holding light in her hands. She has come alive and looks down on me knowingly. With love and light for the Summer Solstice.