Celebrating fathers
2023-06-18
Dear friend,
Humans have been celebrating parents for a long time. The fifth commandment in the Hebrew Bible reads, “Honour your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.” (Exodus 20:12)
Zeus is the Greek god of sky and thunder. He is one of numerous “sky father” deities celebrated the world over for millennia around the summer solstice, which happens to be very close to the third Sunday in June.
Left: Jupiter, another "sky father" deity.
In the U.S., the person who did the most to institute Father’s Day was a daughter.
Sonora Smart Dodd was one of six children raised in Spokane, Washington by a single dad, Civil War veteran William Jackson Smart.
In 1909, Dodd heard a sermon about Mother’s Day, which became a national holiday in 1914. She suggested to her pastor that they also honor fathers. The first such celebration occurred in 1910 at the Spokane YMCA.
President Nixon, a father of two, signed the celebration into law in 1972.
Being celebrated as a father is nice, but enjoying quality time with my son is all I need.
Besides the discounts and brunches, why are we doing this?
One reason is that Vermont needs parents and families.
Births in Vermont and the U.S. have been below replacement level for decades.
Utah is the national leader with 13.8 births per year per 1,000 residents.
Vermont is 50th out of fifty states, with 7.9 births per year per 1,000 residents.
Not only that, but the trend is down. Birth rates in the U.S. are down, and in Vermont they're even downer.
Vermont and U.S. Fertility Rates, 1980-2014
That puts us on course for a smaller, older population. According to the economists, a society without new babies becomes one without essential workers. We could see services shrink. We could see schools and towns fight for survival.
Sounds bad, and more like the present than the future.
But let’s not flip out.
Our ancestors came through a few hard things to get here. What makes us think our problems are worse than anything the fathers and mothers of the past went through?
I’m going to celebrate Father’s Day today by talking with my family and my friends about the future of Vermont.
What do today’s fathers-to-be need to feel safe and valued and supported here?
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Speaking of beIoved ancestors, Father's Day falls again this year on my dad's birthday, also also his mother's birthday.
Gefeliciteerd! (Dutch for "Happy birthday!" - learn it in this video.)
Our as-yet-unnamed, identical gray rescue girls from Windham County Humane Society.
Father's Day is extra special here today because we have two new kittens.
My feeling is that the population issue, and the issue of our youth leaving Vermont or never arriving in the first place, is about purpose.
The problem with our future is that we're not telling our kids why it's worth having one. We've allowed the risks and the burdens to become too high, and the rewards too uncertain and expensive.
Today, let's honor and celebrate fathers and everything that's joyful in life.
What's essential to you about parenthood, and about a future that our children can be excited about?
P.S. Thanks for reading! I'll be back this week with more legislative updates on the June 20–22 "veto session."