I Have Never Been Especially Impressed By

It Is Not That Fathers Are Better Or Worse, Not That They Are More Loved Or Criticized, But Rather That They Are Viewed With Far Less Intensity. There Is No Philip Roth Or Woody Allen Or Nancy Friday Who Writes About Fathers With A Runaway Excess Of Humor, Horror ... Feeling. Most Of Us Let Our Fathers Off The Hook.

Kerry Asks Americans To Look At The Evidence. Bush Asks People To Believe.

We Want Our Children To Fit In And To Stand Out. We Rarely Address The Conflict Between These Goals.

Parents Remain Our Touchstones, Fellow Travelers, Even After Death. They Are Both Missing And Present.

How Many Of The People I Know - Sons And Daughters - Have Intricate Abstract Expressionist Paintings Of Their Mothers, Created Out Of Their Own Emotions, Attitudes, Hands. And How Many Have Only Polaroid Pictures Of Their Fathers.