Mike and Molly came down to celebrate Father's Day with us and then we all went down to La Jolla to visit Great Peepa Hank. The boys had a great time hanging around with their grandparents. Finn and Jack begged for hugs and kisses and stories, and shy Mr. Felix even let go of Amy's hands a couple of times to tug on Pee-pa Mike.
Ironically enough, we started our Father's Day off with a lively discussion of The Atlantic's article entitled 'The End of Men.' The article is extremely grim on men's prospects in society, essentially positing that men are slowly becoming obsolete. I, for one, think this would be a tragedy. Men are the yang to our yin. I grew up with three sisters and I treasure my close friendships with my girlfriends, but my life would be far, far less substantial without men.
As the mother of two boys, I've had to observe men a lot. They are definitely different creatures from women, but I've come to have such an appreciation for the energy they put into the world. I remember Patrick and I once went to a birthday party for a little boy with an older sister. We went upstairs and found a group of girls playing quietly with a doll's house in front of the boy's room. We could hear raucous lauging from inside the room and when we opened the door, a rubber chicken came flying out accompanied by even more wild laughter. The boys had created a makeshift catapult out of odds and ends in order to fling the chicken and I have to say...as much as I loved playing in the Bear's House with Bell when we were little kids, I can't help feeling like the world is better off for having a few Wild Things like Max running around causing mischief of one kind, or another - and for you Northern Exposure fans out there, I think that Chris in the morning would agree with me. So...for Father's day, I say poo to The Atlantic. I intend to spend the rest of this post rhapsodizing about the joy of boys.
Sweet, curious Finn
Wild, wonderful Jack
Gentle, observant Felix
My love Patrick, who's boundless sense of humor and knowledge of the world never cease to surprise me. (Happy anniversary, baby!)
My Father-in-law Mike, who has a little bit of all of the above mixed into one, along with an enviable ability to hold a conversation with anyone in the world. And most of all...Patrick's grandfather, Hank who's warmth and graciousness and humor hava made me miss my own grandfathers just a tiny bit less. Thank you for being like a third grandpa to me all these years.
Love to all of the boys!
5 comments:
Great pictures, and great words, Em - miss you guys and gals terribly!
Jamie
x
I don't know, Em. If it was just us, we wouldn't have to clean the bathrooms nearly so much. ha.
I must put in a word here for some other great guys...Petur, our step-dad, who has the best sense of humor and the biggest heart. And my Jamie, who is the only man in the world who I could bare being married to and for some reason is able to tolerate me. And Jon Stewart, who just cracks me up. And Phil Jackson. Ok, that's it. And Buddha.
It seems to be that good men tend to beget good men. Not always, of course, but it does give me hope that our little guys will grow up to be wonderful, good men since they have such good role models. And perhaps they will in turn beget more wonderful little bundles of testosterone, and the male sex will still be around to delight and annoy us for a long time to come.
Amy
Amy I so agree with you on all of those absent men. I was just thinking of the ones we spent father's day with, but there are lots of fantastic absent men, too. Brian is another good one. And my brother Mikey who frustrates me like crazy, but made my life much more interesting than it would have been without him. Also, a special thank you to Eli's dad, David Simpson, who will always be one of my favorite Dads.
And another honorable mention to Eric, who is a rich, lovely human being, despite his personal demons.
Thanks guys - it's nice to be appreciated!!!
I have to whole-heartedly agree. I love my sisters, my mom, and my amazing array of girlfriends more than I could ever say...but my relationships with men - as a sister, wife, lover, aunt, friend...have done t least as much to make my life, and me, emotionally richer, happier, more exciting, more complicated, more painful, more patient, more loving...men have broken my heart and breathed life back into me, have made me snort with laughter, and cry until I thought I might die from it. Em's boys have brought a depth of love and laughter to my heart that I never knew before. We need men, in all their forms. as much as they need us, and I don't think that will ever be obsolete. Thank God.
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