“Well…”

“I think it’s on Thanksgiving.”

“God doesn’t actually have a birthday like Jesus or people do. God doesn’t exist within time, like everything in our universe does.  He is in Heaven where there’s no such thing as space or time, and he has always been there.”

“Oh… so God is like a Transformer.”

“Yep.”

“Well, when I grow up, I’m going to be a builder. So I won’t need to shave my rough! Cause builders don’t ever have to shave their rough. Um, Dada? What happens if I don’t shave my rough?”

“You can’t have any pudding.”

“What?!?”

“How can you have any pudding if you don’t shave your rough?”

“Dada, we can’t have pudding for breakfast! Hmmph!”

I am a father to the best kid a dad could ever ask for. A little boy who will many times a day, very matter-of-factly, tell me that he loves me and smile. A boy who will stop playing with his cars or trains, just to appease his old man with a kiss on the cheek. A boy who joyfully says hello to every passer by, and offers stories of his wonderful life to all who will listen. He is unconditional love personified.

It pains me deeply to know that he will slowly grow out of this beautiful innocence as the curtains of life draw back. I know that as they do, it is my duty to teach him right from wrong, to treat others as he would want to be treated, and to love his neighbors. But, as an old friend of mine liked to say, “innocence is the last rebellion.” And he couldn’t have been more profoundly right. So I will do everything in my power to protect that part of him, to shelter him from the noise that surrounds us, to keep him from growing up too fast, and try and instill in him a joy for life and love that stays with him always.

I am a husband to the best wife a man could ever ask for. She’s an incredibly patient woman who, for some reason, continues to stick by me through the thick and thin of careers, marriage, parenthood, and family life. She’s a passionate, supportive and encouraging woman who has always wanted the most and the best for me our son, and for everyone around her. And she’s a loving wife and mother, who unconditionally gives of herself for her family. So it is my duty then, to give her as much of myself, my patience, passion, support, encouragement and love as I possibly can.

I am blessed because God loves me, and has seen fit to grant me the best life that any man could ever ask for. He has blessed me with the most amazing kid, and a beautiful, loving wife. He has blessed me with great parents, who by their own example, taught me how to be a good father, and a good husband. I am blessed because I was born into a country whose founders, and generations of their children, have sacrificed, and worked hard to try and keep the curtains closed, so that their children could live lives without worry, full of wonder and love. And so I owe it to HIM and them, to be the best dad, the best husband, and the best servant that a son or wife or Holy Father could ever ask for.

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Finally, I’d like to ask all who read this to say a special Father’s Day prayer for the father of Neda, the young Iranian woman whose gut-wrenching death has been shown ad nauseam on cable news over the last few days. I can not fathom the kind of sorrow her father must have felt as he watched his daughter die. I can only hope that somewhere in the midst of that immense pain, was a comfort that he could be with her as she left this life, and pray that he is able to tempter his sadness with the happy memories of their life together.