Dad Likes It

[qos]

Yesterday afternoon I emailed a copy of my papers on "Being Human" and "Sin" to my father. He called me last night to tell me how impressed - and moved - he was by them.

This is of note because although for most of my life I have been "Daddy's Girl," I've been feeling like he's withdrawn from me a bit since I started attending seminary. He left the ministry before I was born, and tends to define himself as a reverent agnostic. He attends church with my mother, but I strongly suspect he finds communion with God far more often in nature. Which is fine -- but it perhaps has been putting up a barrier between us as he contemplates me going into ministry. I don't think he "disapproves," but I don't think he's entirely comfortable with it either.

The fact that I'm embarking on generating a whole new burden of school loans doesn't help (although all my previous education has been paid off).

So to have him call me and respond so positively to my work was very important to me.

One day, he and I will have to talk about these issues -- but the right moment hasn't yet come.

Comments

Re: The love of a father...

[qos.livejournal.com]

You make an excellent point about the challenges of the transition from "young adult" to "adult." It's one that our society doesn't acknowledge the way it does the adolescent-to-young-adult phase. We expect parent/child conflict, or at least change, during those years, but don't really address what happens later on - expect perhaps when the child moves into a caregiver role.

My father is my hero, and part of my inner work over the last few years has been to separate my admiration from him and my desire to emulate him from my understanding of what choices are right for me.

Thanks for that last paragraph.