Happy Father’s Day to all who celebrate.
I landed in London yesterday and ended up in a long taxi ride into the city. My driver and I talked the whole way about fatherhood. He told me he’d moved out of London to give his daughter, who’s almost seven, a quieter life. “I just want her to feel safe and strong,” he said. “Loved, all the time.”
The father-daughter relationship is a powerful one. He admitted that parenting is hard, but loving her is easy.
It made me think about my own dad. He didn’t always set out to have kids. But in his forties, he adopted me and my brother. It took the consent of our birth fathers, and maybe some divine intervention. He never made a big deal of it. He just showed up, fully, with love, every day. We really lucked out.
Naturally, I always noticed how he dressed—simple, classic pieces from the seventies: faded short-shorts, Lacoste polos, and a few good suits from his twenties. I borrowed most of it, lost half. He didn’t really care. He still warmed up the car before driving me to school. We’d go to car races and airshows, or watch old planes take off early on Sundays to let my mom sleep in. None of it was grand. It just meant a lot.
So today, on Father’s Day, I’m thinking about dads like him. The quiet ones. The loving ones. The you-can-do-anything ones. The ones who show us safety, and help us take risks. And I’m also thinking of the friends who face a hard time on this day each year—for all kinds of reasons. You’re not alone.
It doesn’t take being a parent to be a guiding light. Young people always need kind figures, especially right now. Remember to honor dad today, and mom always, but also the village of good people it takes to raise good people. They all matter, and every effort counts.
And if yours, like mine, is a motorhead, there’s always the gift of a Fall trip to Goodwood Revival, or simply a morning spent looking at cars.
What a beautiful article.