Father’s Day.

As we prepare to celebrate this time-honored tradition, dating back to…well, I was going to make a joke about Hallmark and what not, but that isn’t really true. It, surprisingly, has some very sincere origins. It started in Spokane, WA in an effort to celebrate fathers in 1910.

But why do I find the sincerity of the holiday’s origins so surprising?

As a kid, I often struggled with the concept of Father’s Day.

Having lost my father at a young age, the day became not one of celebration, but one of dread.

My mother struggled with my father’s death, so reminders of his absence did little to inspire celebration. And my own inability to remember him provided further alienation. Couple that with its proximity to my birthday, and it was a day this kid always cringed about.

But what does that have to do with this website/podcast?

Everything.

Not having a father around set me off on the strange road of life in search of an understanding of something most people don’t even wonder about.

And I started that search in comic books, then science fiction, then everything else.

In Spider-man, I learned that the death of a fatherly figure could be the guiding force in turning a selfish child into a hero.

In Back To The Future, other than getting the fantasy of being able to go back and change the world, I learned that the past isn’t always what we were taught. And how fragile our present is.

In Superman, I learned that fathers can make sacrifices for adoptive fathers to continue the task of teaching a boy humility, compassion, empathy, and understanding.

In the original Star Wars, I learned that a lonely orphan farm boy could make a cool sword to save the universe, but more importantly see his dad one last time.

In Batman, I learned that the death of a father and mother can motivate you in ways you can’t always predict or even understand.

In Green Lantern, I learned that the last minutes of a father’s life could haunt you with your worst fears, only to give way to acceptance of the unknown.

In the X-Men, I learned that fathers could be driven by similar notions towards radically different results, and how the slightest shift can make the difference between a hero and a villain.

But most importantly, what I learned from all these things…was that the world is full of so many different people with so many different experiences. And there was so much to learn about what was out there by exploring the mythos that they created.

By reading all these stories and others, I got a chance to learn things from the fathers of Stan Lee, Geoff Johns, John Byrne, George Lucas and so many others.

Everything we create is a product of not just our experiences, but the experiences of our collective friends, colleagues, siblings, and parents.

So I would like to thank you all for sharing your fathers with a young kid who didn’t know where to turn.

I’d like to think it made a world of difference.

Happy Father’s Day.

Popularity: 1% [?]