The First Forty

 We honor our parents by carrying their best forward

And laying the rest down. 

By fighting and taming the demons that laid them low

And now reside in us. 

-Bruce Springsteen

It was on this very day, forty years ago, WPK, Sr. died.  

Dad - Christmas 1980

Here is to hoping that the first forty years proves to be the hardest. 

And all we know about manhood 

is what we have seen

and what we have learned from our fathers, 

and my father was my hero. 

And my greatest foe.

Not long after he died, I had this dream,

I'm on stage, I'm in front of thousands of people,

and my dad's back from the dead 

and he's sitting in the audience and suddenly 

I'm kneeling next to him in the aisle,

and for a moment we both watched the man

on fire on the stage.  

And then my dad who for years, 

he sat at the kitchen table, unreachable,

but I was too young, I was too stupid 

to understand was his depression.

Well, I kneel next to him in the aisle,

and I brush his forearm, and I say,

"Look dad.  That guy on stage - 

that's how I see you."

"My Father's House (Broadway)

-Bruce Springsteen

-AK