Sunday 19 June 2016

Happy Fathers Day!

As I've said before, Fathers Day is, in some sense, the diametric or perhaps bipolar opposite of Mothers Day: where the latter is full of guilt and angst, womblike dark reflections on existence, the unforgiving brutality of having been brought into this world in a puddle of blood via the appropriate obtuse angle of two legs, the obligation of the siblings and their cuckoo nest-mates to the master feeder who kept them alive when none else could, though not from love: purely from an instinctive drive powerful enough to self-sacrifice as we see in certain spider species whose mothers let their children feed on their own body after birth-- can we then argue those mothers love their spiderlings more than a human mother? are their Mothers Days not far superior to those of humans, who are not permitted to feast for taboo reasons on the maternal body before her death?-- on the other hand Fathers Day can correctly be regarded in its proximity to the summer solstice as full of light, indeed a maximal amount of illumination, representing as it does the opening door of summer, the memory of sunburns and fishing, meat in fires and the celebration of the great unparalleled and ancient human invention of the controlled fermentation of sugars.  Rather it is the anti-guilt, the duty of forgiveness, a kind of confession of mortality which is to be inherited by the younger ones, as can be seen in the fact that where the day for Mothers must perforce be planned ad nauseam without involvement from the celebratee (else she instantly develops a bad mood that persists through the day or even the next few, often exploding into anger over trivial nuisances), the day for Fathers to the contrary must be completely organized by the king oops I mean the man himself without any obstruction from the all-too-human forces of shame, guilt, or even moderation, nor should there be any deviation from its proper course of complete life-enjoyment by the influence of any mothers in the extended family who understandably will through the effect of a bit of jealousy, or, sometimes, protection of the little ones, attempt to redirect the festivities in a more austere, controlled direction.  And if the Father doesn't receive either a gift or a card in the morning, because he probably doesn't even deserve either, who cares? it will hardly be remembered by the next day after the party...  For the spirit of Fathers Day is the spirit of receiving from oneself, giving to oneself, celebrating sperm and life, and if after all the bbq ribs and lobster and the debts his family has incurred on his credit cards cause him to have a heart attack by night's end, what does it matter?  At least his family will wake up tomorrow the beneficiary of his insurance policy...  So let us celebrate Fathers Day!

1 comment:

  1. Just what I was thinking. And Happy Father's Day to you, too.

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