My daughter is back from a three month tour of the interior of BC where she was traveling with a theatre company. I missed her terribly. The thought of her and her brothers growing up is satisfying and at the same time terrifying. For the past quarter of a century my primary job was being a parent.
Fatherhood was my finest hour. I loved being a dad. That they are now grown up is only mitigated by the hope that some day there will be grandchildren but I’m not sure I would have been the dad I was if it weren’t for a song.
When I was in my late teens I first heard the Harry Chapin tune “Cat’s In The Cradle”, a story about a man who provides for his family by working hard, but forgets to spend time with his son and finds in his old age his son has no time to spend with him. The implication is he’s learned this from his father. The terror of that fate has always reminded me to spend as much time as I could with my children (and my parents) and my relationship with my family as a result is the richest and most satisfying part of my life. But it might not have been if it were not for those words.
Some years ago I read a book by Alvin Tofler called Power Shift. In that book the author argues (only much more eloquently) that power has many sources. It can come from bullets, from dollars and last of all from ideas or words. You can make a person do something at the point of a gun but once the gun goes away that person will revert back to doing what ever they want. You can pay somebody to do something but as soon as the money runs out they will find something else to do. The ultimate power comes from words. If you convince a person to do something because its right they will continue to do that thing for the rest of their lives. I’m a better father because of the words of a song. I love the richness of the English language and the power of its words. You mix that with the power of music and who knows? You could change the world.