Angeli et amici: In Vigilia S. Iacobi Apostoli

The ancient Greeks had Odysseus; Medievals had Arthur; Americans have Superman.

In celebration of the seventy fifth anniversary of the Last Son of Krypton this year a major cinematic commercial, I mean, presentation was released entitled “Man of Steel”. The title is amazingly appropriate as steel is an alloy and a major thematic undercurrent regards the differing ways Jor-El and Jonathan Kent forge the powerful protagonist into Superman. In a marvelous marketing maneuver the film was released during Father’s Day weekend thereby doubling and tripling the paternal overtures like a reverberating echo.

Echos. For me, that is what remains of my father. On an usually chilly night of July 24th, lo many years ago, the sweetly serene designs of Divine Providence decreed that his soul return to the embrace of equanimous Eternity. Even though one was striding in the early years of his majority, a starker demarcation delineating the end of one’s boyhood perhaps could not be had. My Father was a reserved man but that exterior gainsaid an heroic tenderness and devotion. Not to mention that he could display a delightful yet understated sense of humor when the occasion called for it. Perhaps the seeds of my own amusing avocation were sown were sown by him.

A comforting chuckle on the one day of the year that this otherwise chipper clown allows upon his countenance a quiet cascade of bittersweet tears.