Today is Father's Day, and I've been reflecting lately on how integrated fatherhood has been in my spirituality. It is part of my vocation, my core identity. Much of my prayer life has been shaped by it. I just got back from a brief but fun family vacation and got a nice call from my older daughter while I was there. Fatherhood is feeling like a very good thing.Today is a good day for a few light-hearted Bill Cosby quotes. I hope they bless your Father's Day:
"Even though your kids will consistently do the exact opposite of what you're telling them to do, you have to keep loving them just as much."
"Fatherhood is pretending the present you love most is soap-on-a-rope."
"A new father quickly learns that his child invariably comes to the bathroom at precisely the times when he's in there, as if he needed company. The only way for this father to be certain of bathroom privacy is to shave at the gas station."
"Having a child is surely the most beautifully irrational act that two people in love can commit."
"Human beings are the only creatures on earth that allow their children to come back home."
"I guess the real reason that my wife and I had children is the same reason that Napoleon had for invading Russia: it seemed like a good idea at the time."
"If the new American father feels bewildered and even defeated, let him take comfort from the fact that whatever he does in any fathering situation has a fifty percent chance of being right."
"No matter how calmly you try to referee, parenting will eventually produce bizarre behavior, and I'm not talking about the kids. Their behavior is always normal."
"Raising children is an incredibly hard and risky business in which no cumulative wisdom is gained: each generation repeats the mistakes the previous one made."
"You know the only people who are always sure about the proper way to raise children? Those who've never had any."
