Several years ago, I received an early Father’s Day present, but it wasn’t the type of gift I was expecting at the time. At the dinner table, my then eighteen year-old daughter, Abby asked a rather challenging question: “How do you decide which party to join when registering to vote?”
Being a life-long Democrat I launched into a passionate discourse on the fundamental principles of the Democratic Party and why I thought she’d be better suited registering as a Democrat. The only things missing from my presentation was the Star Spangled Banner playing in the background and red, white and blue balloons falling from the ceiling. F.D.R. would’ve been proud!
My wife, Susan, our resident Republican gave an equally impressive presentation on the fundamental platform of the Republican Party and I worried for a moment that she had my daughter converted when I saw Abby wipe a tear from her eye. Then, I realized the salad had too many onions.
What followed next was a lively discussion wherein Abby challenged our respective parties’ principles with some rather pointed and thought-provoking questions. More than once she pointed out that our espoused party principles were self-serving and questioned whether we were more motivated by the desire for personal satisfaction than by actual concern for public good. Abby had a good grasp of public issues and a determination to make up her own mind on each matter. It was pretty obvious that she wasn’t going to be duped by petty rhetoric.
Abby didn’t indicate how she was leaning on party affiliation, but I knew the political dinner discussion was over when she motioned toward the platter of chicken on the table and complimented me [the chef] with a request for a second helping.
“This is good chicken”, she noted. “How did you make it?”
When you’ve raised a daughter who’s not afraid to ask questions, not afraid to challenge the premises underlying the statements of the authority figures in her life and confident in her own ability to judge what’s right and what’s not, you know you’ve done a good job as a dad. That realization is the best Father’s Day gift a guy could ever receive!
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