My Sunday Father's Day Feeling

This is hilarious.

I ran into my friend Bill in the grocery store the other night.  We hadn't seen each other in awhile and resolved to go get some dinner soon to hoist a few and catch up on old news.  

I admit to having some reservations about this.  The last time I planned to meet Bill for dinner, I wrecked my car en route in the ice and snow.  But I'm not overly superstitious so I agreed to meet him Sunday night.

This morning (Friday) I got a text asking for a rain check.  Seems he had forgotten about Father's Day being this Sunday.  

Now, I tend to forget about Father's Day with something approaching regularity. I am not a Dad and my own father died damn near 40 years ago.  As I have written before, at this stage of the game it's almost like Buck never existed. He's an abstraction made tangible primarily by the presence of myself and my brothers and a marble marker at the Veteran's Cemetery.

But really that's about all he remains at this point.  No disrespect.  It is what it is.  I forget about people I haven't spoken to in a year.  Try 38.

But Bill has 3 kids.  2 of them are still in town.  I think.  At least one of them is. Of this I am sure.  And Bill forgot Sunday is Father's Day.

I submit that this is one of the main differences between men and women.  No Mom in the long and storied history of motherhood has ever forgotten Mother's Day.  Ever.  I can state this with teleological, if not metaphysical, certitude.  I challenge you to prove me wrong.

Most Dads I know can take it or leave it.  Or at least they don't want a big honking deal made of the day.  My brother Bob probably does but that's OK too. Back when my friend Richard's kids were in the house he used to say that all he wanted for Father's Day was to be left alone.  Bill says that while he can relate to Richard's sentiments on the issue, by the same token he allowed as how he could use a travel coffee mug that doesn't leak.  If his kids presented him with that he wouldn't turn it down despite his ambivalence about the occasion.

The word "ambivalence" would never be used in connection with Mother's Day by any Mom worthy of the title.  Hence another difference between men and women.  

I hope Bill gets his mug.  If you are a Dad I hope you get your wish for Father's Day.  

Even if its just to be left the hell alone for one day.