Father's Day.

I don't have a very good relationship with my dad.

He wasn't a very loving person. I only remember times when I was sick when I was younger than eight, I think, that he showed any love or kindness to me. As I got older we became enemies, and as a teenager there was no one I hated MORE than my dad. I think that maybe he was emotionally ill-equipped to raise children in a metropolitan area being from a farm in Oklahoma, and I heard stories about how hard my grandfather was on all of my aunts and uncles--and my dad, too.

We get along better now as adults, but still we run out of things to say after talking for just a little while. It's easier to be together in, say, a casino setting where we don't really talk. I respect my dad immensely for providing me with clothing, an education, a car to drive, and my insanely accurate moral compass and common sense. Even though he wasn't a loving dad, he did, in my opinion, create a responsible, interesting human being in the person that I've become. As a parent, I don't know how you do any better unless your child becomes the president or an astronaut or Mother Theresa. I love my dad, yes. But I don't have fond nostalgia for, or any sweet memories of, our time together as parent and child. I am in no way "daddy's little girl."

I suppose that's better than not having a dad at all. At least he wasn't some alcoholic jerk. I'm very grateful for that.