Father is the First Teacher
by Sara Wiseman
“I’m at the pool, I’m maybe 4 or 5, and I’m learning to swim. I catch sign of myself in reflection: I’m a green-capped alien, the water is dangerously blue, every ripple like a flash of light along the pool’s floor, and I’m hanging on to the only safety I know: my father’s arms, my father’s chest, everything sturdy and comforting, covered with blond curling hair.”
Fatherhood
by Kent Nerburn
“Little is perfect in our lives. We dream of perfect love, we try to become perfect people, we challenge ourselves to see the universe as a perfect creation. But all our efforts and struggles are doomed to disappointment. We are not perfect. But there is one place where perfection is given to us in all its wholeness: Fatherhood.”
The Shadow of the Father
by Kent Nerburn
“The image of my father floats like a specter before me as I try to form my thoughts about manhood. I see him as he is now — a shell of a man, lost in private memories, spending his days idly flicking a television from channel to channel in hopes of finding something to occupy his time. I see him as he is, but I remember him as he was.”