Go ahead: Tell him

Thanks, Dad.

For loosening your tie and warming up your right arm all those evenings before supper, switching into tennis shoes and tossing the ball in the back yard.For scaring your kids witless with late-night stories of pirates and treasure and shipwrecks. And monsters. Sunrise never came too soon.

For reading the many tales of Winnie-the-Pooh to us, over and over and over again, assigning a character to each of your children and creating special voices for each long before Disney emulated your style.For never, ever reading the final chapter, In Which Christopher Robin and Pooh Come to an Enchanted Place, and We Leave Them There.

All these years later we still have not read it.For bringing us knickknacks from your many travels.

For sharing stories from your many travels and, more than that, for keeping the art of embellishment to an acceptable minimum.For instilling the importance of critical thinking, of education, of passion.

For making us laugh. And yes, for making us cry.For admitting, albeit reluctantly, when you were wrong.

For all the times you demonstrated the most important of lessons: How loving your wife leads to a happy family life.

Have you thanked your father today?