It’s Father’s Day. I noticed it on the calendar but it’s now one of those holiday celebrations that doesn’t fall under my jurisdiction. My dad passed about seven years ago, so he won’t be expecting anything special. I think about him less than I used to. I suppose, like any great heartache, time cleans up the mess but there is always a stain of sorrow. Time also scrubs away disappointment sometimes and with that comes forgiveness. The happier memories are the ones that resonate in the mind and persist til the end.
I do miss him and I can’t help but to think about him today. My dad’s great loves were bicycles, taking pictures, and being with Asian women. I would bet money that he has photographed an Asian woman riding a bicycle. He had boxes full of pictures of people. I think they’re mostly of people he didn’t know. I can only assume he didn’t know them because of the shear volume of pictures and the fact that so many of the people were not looking at the camera when their picture was taken. Also because many of the pictures were taken in public places.
Besides candid photos he would do a lot of ambush style photography, like he was trying to get people to look as stupid as possible when the shot was taken. He’d come from around the corner and blind people with the flash of the camera. Captured on film were people’s best impressions of a deer in headlights. He was a merciless joker, in that sense. Perhaps in other ways, too.
He probably would have managed to ambush more people if he could have contained his laughter.
Now that my father is gone, I’ll be celebrating Father’s Day with other people’s fathers tonight. Hopefully they’re generous.
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