This past Father’s Day was wonderful. My son Maxwell is the joy of my life and the center of my universe. If your are also a father – do you remember the beautiful moment when your child began walking?
I played with Max and his legos, read books and watched him walk and stumble. I had to clean up after Max pulled all his socks and pajamas from their baskets underneath his changing table. Oh…I changed his diapers a couple of times. All in all, a perfect Father’s Day for me.
Yesterday I skimmed a article about a bombing in Baghdad late on Tuesday. Yet another large bomb killing many innocent people. It seemed like this story has been reported over and over — and over and over — so many times that I can no longer keep count. Terrorists allowing innocence to be exposed to their acts of violence. And I seem to have grown numb to the fact that terror and violence are apart of life for so many in this world simply because it is so far away.
Late last night I flipped through NYTimes June 18th Pictures of the Day and found a young father kissing his two year old son, a victim of that bombing.
I cannot seem to find the words to describe my emotions upon seeing that photograph. Then for less than a second … my mind flashed of me … holding my own son. My emotion was overwhelming with tears instantly welling in my eyes. Maybe every father who sees beauty in his children should view the horror of this photograph to re-awaken the need to end war and acts of terror. Even when previewing this post … I just cannot “paste” this photograph into my blog. The image would painfully cross my eyes too often. Here is the link.
Upon closing that browser window last night I could only think: How can fathers stop this violence from harming more fathers.