Father’s Day is this weekend. The idea of a special day to honor fathers and celebrate fatherhood was introduced in the U.S. by Sonora Smart Dodd who was inspired by a sermon given in her church on Mother’s Day. She is credited with working to have an official day to celebrate fathers, something we have been doing in this country since 1910. Fathers also have a special day in 15 other countries although the date varies.

 

Here in the U.S., a bill to accord national recognition of the holiday was introduced in Congress in 1913. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson went to Spokane, Wash.,  to speak in a Father’s Day celebration and wanted to make it official, but Congress resisted, fearing that it would become commercialized.

 

And Congress wasn’t wrong. According to the National Retail Foundation, both Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are big, big business. They report that an estimated $23 billion was spent on cards, flowers and gifts on Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day spending estimates are around $15 billion. And according to those who research all this spending, the millennial generation is spending their dollars on experiences for mom and dad rather than “stuff.” But I digress from the history lesson here.

 

According to our friends at Wikipedia, “in 1924 U.S. President Calvin Coolidge recommended that Father’s Day be observed by the nation, but stopped short of issuing a national proclamation. Two earlier attempts to formally recognize the holiday had been defeated by Congress. In 1957, Maine Sen. Margaret Chase Smith wrote a proposal accusing Congress of ignoring fathers for 40 years while honoring mothers, thus ‘(singling) out just one of our two parents.’ In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation honoring fathers, designating the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day. Six years later, the day was made a permanent national holiday when President Richard Nixon signed it into law in 1972.” 

 

What stands out in this little slice of history is that both the original idea to honor fathers and the formal proposal pointing out the fact that our nation was slow to make Father’s Day official were both done by daughters. And personally I don’t think Ms. Dodd or Ms. Chase were just trying to be equitable to dads in giving them “their own official day.” I truly believe it’s because these two women realized that girls especially owe a great deal to our fathers. Their contribution to society and our lives as daughters — as women — shouldn’t go unnoticed. Dads teach lessons no one else can — the most important of which is how we should expect to be treated as women, wives and mothers. They help teach us what masculinity looks like, and that it doesn’t always take the same form. 

 

I learned skills of observation, diplomacy, hunting and fishing balanced with a love and respect for the outdoors from my dad. I learned gardening, canning, bread-baking and how to dish out discipline to my own kids. I learned how to play cards, mow the lawn, drive a tractor, drive in a demolition derby and use my turn signal even when dad doesn’t. I learned how to change the oil, change a tire and change my mind. I learned how to haggle, the time to engage and when to walk away. I can tell a joke, tell a story and tell a fool from a wise man, thanks to my dad. 

 

My dad is as much a part of my physical, social and emotional DNA as my mother is.  The fullness of my gender identity, assigned to me by God, is fulfilled by the loving example and guidance of my dad. Now, I realize not all dads are created equal. For every peach, there’s a pit, but in the grand design, we girls need a dad even if he’s sometimes a warning rather than an example.

 

And of course, men can’t do that alone. And all of you reading this know that having a father and mother who love one another is the greatest gift and the greatest lesson for children. And that natural lesson plan was created by the greatest Father of all whom we all, I hope, visit on Father’s Day and every Sunday as we go to be with Him in our churches and become one with Him in the Eucharist. 

 

And I also hope you all will join me this Sunday in celebrating and praying that all children have three important things in their life —a good God, a good mother and a good father. 

 

Happy Father’s Day.