'Happy Father's Day, Son ..."

Evan and me at a Salem Red Sox baseball game

While I was running around yesterday trying to put together a Father's Day package for my son, it occurred to me that I'm the father in this relationship and it gave me pause. Should I be buying Father's Day stuff for my own kid?

Well, yeh. I should. He's the better father in this tandem by a ton and if there is a single reason I'm proud of him--and there's a hell of a lot more than that--it's because he's about as good a father as I know; far, far, far better than the one he grew up with.

Evan's influence with his kids is apparent in everything they do, though his quiet, laid back approach goes missing with Madeline and Oz. What I see is his immense sense of what is right, what is fair, what is kind, what is loving. Oz is a little too young to demonstrate those traits yet, but I see Evan's face in that little round blob and that huge smile that yells to get out. Madeline is a good little girl--above all else. I take great pleasure in her enthusiasm, her energy, her kindness and sense of fair play, her simple joy in other people and in her eagerness to be who she is all the time. That doesn't come from nowhere and I see my son's prints all over it.

My guess is that he'll have a good Father's Day and I will too. Especially when I say to him, "Happy Father's day, son."