I’d have attempted a sonnet of my own, but I figured that most of the people reading would not be doing so while comfortably strapped into a “Vogon Poetry Appreciation Chair”. As unpopular as I know it to be these days, I still love Shakespeare. He may not be “cool” with people today, and though many can claim to have seen a bad movie adaption or re-imagining of one of his plays (with the notable exception of Mel Gibson’s Hamlet), few can claim to have actually read his work. There is much about life, love, and the roles we all play throughout our lives in his writings. Much of it is also both touching and true, so this one I decided to share…
“Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest,
Now is the time that face should form another,
Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest,
Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother.
For where is she so fair whose uneared womb
Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry?
Or who is he so fond will be the tomb,
Of his self-love to stop posterity?
Thou art thy mother’s glass and she in thee
Calls back the lovely April of her prime,
So thou through windows of thine age shalt see,
Despite of wrinkles this thy golden time.
But if thou live remembered not to be,
Die single and thine image dies with thee.”
– William Shakespeare
On this Fathers Day remember that your children are your monument to posterity. It is through them that you pass down your values, your thoughts, the memories you made, and of course that pesky genetic code. In a very real way they are your corporeal immortality. For even though you die, part of you continues to live on and contributes to society in a very real way — unless you are one of those whom the poem is about. If that is the case, I would pray that it touches your heart that you are missing out one one of the most meaningful aspects of existence next to God and Love. Remember there is still time to change that situation before next Father’s Day.
For in the end, what are we but the love of two people, tied together with a cord of conjoined DNA, and clothed in the sum of both of their hopes and dreams…
Happy Father’s Day to All,
cc70458@gmail.com
* Feel free to comment and let me know what you think about this or any post, or if you just want me to point you to some free copies of Shakespeare’s collected works so you can start a literary journey from your pad or phone.
The Catholic Husband 
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