Proud Papa

 October 27, 2022

There are few privileges greater than seeing your children rise higher and go further than yourself. One of the joys of age is when your children and grandchildren can stand upon your shoulders and see vistas and horizons beyond those within your field of vision.

This afternoon I had the opportunity of talking with a young adult I’ve known since his college days. His son is nineteen, a music major in college himself, who accompanies students at concerts and recitals. He has had as mentors world renown musicians and has dreams of life filled with music. His father took him recently to New York City to see a Broadway show. When it was over, his son said, “THIS is what I want to do!” 

His father is justly proud. An accomplished musician himself, he told me he was asked once if his son was as good as he. “That ship sailed when he was eleven,” his father replied. We talked about fatherhood, about raising children, about discipline and challenges, about the work we put in early that now rewards us with children who make a contribution instead of a withdrawal on society. 

Twenty or more years ago, he wanted to move to New York to see if he could make it in the music world. His parents were telling him he needed to get a “real job.” I’ve never met his parents, but I know they did a good job because of the quality of the son they produced. But i disagreed with them in this matter. 

“If you don’t follow your dream, you’ll always wonder “What if…” “You have your entire life ahead of you to settle down with a “real job,”” I responded. He moved to the Big Apple for a few years, came back home, married, and raised a fine son. 

We all have dreams, stars towards which we stretch. We don’t always reach them, but are better for having tried. And any father worth his salt wants his child to go further, be greater than he was able to do. I know that’s what I wanted for my sons and my daughter. Each in their own way has done more than I have done, and accomplished things I would never have imagined. I am so very proud of each of them.

I don’t think this longing for our children is accidental, a fluke of nature. I believe it is a reflection of God himself, who sees in even the worst of us something worth saving. And when we begin to see it ourselves, when we begin to stand on his shoulders, we don’t see more than God sees, but we see more than we saw. And God is proud; I imagine he squares his shoulders, stands a bit taller himself, as with a smile that comes from his very heart, he says, “That’s my boy! And I’m so proud of him!”