A special day...

Today in Australia is Father's day, and it is a day to commemorate and memorialise the significant impact that our fathers and the act of being a father has on the lives of their children, their families and our own lives. My own father has for the most part been a model whose positive qualities I have feebly tried to replicate in my own life, but as is the redundancy and failing of all copies, after every generation the conviction, motivation and clarity of that vision fades. As with my own future children who will some day hopefully attempt to emulate the principles that I have based my moral compass on, I am sure that my own vision and hopes for them will somehow be diluted through the eyes of children and the passage of time.

There is however a short coming of this special day that no one tends to focus on though or is rarely considered. Fathers day on the whole fails to recognise, remember and offer compassion for those whose fathers were not positive role models, absent fathers, fathers who have passed, men who dream of being a father but for some reason cannot, or the fathers of children who are no longer with them for what ever reason - be it miscarriage, death, divorce, or difference of opinion. I suppose in my own way, I'm hoping to draw attention to the other side of the coin here and perhaps make those of us with fathers feel more grateful for the lives we were luckily born into, but also to reassure those who have no reason to commemorate a father, those who no longer have a father, or those fathers who no longer have children, that somewhere someone is thinking of them too.

It's easy enough for us all to get wrapped up in the emotion and celebration that occurs in our own lives. But when you raise your glasses to toast your fathers today, please spare a thought for those who the world may have forgot. If you think of them and it helps you to appreciate your situation more, then think of them for that reason. If you think of them only to become more aware that your special day with your father is not universal, then think of them for that reason.

But most of all think of them and feel for them. Because for so long no one has thought of them. Once a year on a day dedicated to all the fathers of the world, think of those children whose fathers deserve to be forgotten and don't deserve the right to be remembered, think of those whose fathers have disappeared from their lives, and think of those fathers whose children were so untimely ripped from their lives.