On Father's Day - A Personal Note

Those that really know me, know that I can talk, and talk, and then talk some more when it comes to my father. We always have a close relationship and in more than one way, he made me who I am (responsibility and guilt shared with my mom, of course).

And who am I? Well... I have a -more or less- "normal life" but I finally made peace with the fact than I am "an unusual" person. Unusual is the best way to put it, for some others I am simply weird. Hey, I have been compared to the character "House" more than once and it is a funny thing because I always take that as a compliment even when it wasn't meant as one.

What I think is important though, is not who I am but the fact that I like who I am. Of course, I would love to be able to change some stupid things (like my weight, or the fact that I am so messy and clumsy or my total lack of patience, among other things) but -truth be told- I have little to envy others.

There are a million of nice things I could say about my father and believe me, I know first hand that he is not perfect. But he always knew that too and he was always sincere about who he was. He didn't try to be "the perfect father" he just wanted to be the best parent he could, without denying or betraying who he was. He was always sincere with me and I was always sincere with him.

From him I inherited my love for books and dogs, my passion for teaching and writing and the complete inability to have a clean desk.

My dad is now 93 and we are separated by some thousand miles. He is in Buenos Aires and I am here in Florida and I got to see him just once a year. I really, really, really miss him. We do not have the long talks we used to have anymore but he is still the most important figure in my life.

I usually don't give a damn about commercial days like mother's or father's day and I still don't do. But I decided that this Father's Day could be a good excuse to write about him. So, here it is. A small hommage to a great dad. A dad short in height but big in stature!

So, ¡Feliz Día del Padre, petiso padre mío!