The Power of a Father
The recent experience of walking my beautiful daughter down the aisle on her wedding day is something I have few adequate words to describe. The whole day was a epiphany from beginning to end. After my father of the bride speech it appears that I had caused not a small number of, mostly , but not entirely, women to cry. Without going into my merits or otherwise as a father, I have been struck afresh by the very real power of a father, and how witnessing (or being part of) that relationship at its best can awaken the deepest emotions in all of us. Post wedding research revealed that my words as a proud father that day made people cry through emotions stirred on a wide spectrum. Some were identifying with a positive experience in knowing thier own father, and my proud words of affirmation were resonating with memories of words their own fathers may have spoken over them. Others were apparently dissolved by the pain of shame and anger at the memory of harsh or absent fathers, and being