On Father's Day -- Learning to Let Go of the Atticus Finch Gold Standard

On Father's Day -- Learning to Let Go of the Atticus Finch Gold Standard
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/06/17/on-fathers-day-learning-to-let-go-atticus-finch-gold-standard/
By Ian Morgan Cron

Published June 17, 2011

Every year on Father’s Day I watch the movie, "To Kill a Mockingbird." As a young dad it was an agonizing exercise. The character Atticus Finch, played by Gregory Peck, is the perfect father. He’s strong, a pillar of courage, brimming with dignity, yet a gentle and attentive single parent to his two children.

If that weren’t enough Atticus always knows what to say at precisely the right moment. “Courage is not a man with a gun in his hand,” he says to his 10 year-old son Jem. “It’s knowing you’re licked before you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.”

Ever come up with a pearl of wisdom like that while driving a mini-van crammed with screaming and hygienically challenged boys to a Little League game? I think not. This year things are different. I turned 50 and I’ve learned to watch "To Kill a Mockingbird" without judging my performance as a father against the Atticus Finch Gold Standard.

For me fatherhood isn’t about perfection anymore. Fatherhood is about remembering the promise I whispered in a delivery room to God and myself as I watched each of my three children come into the world, that I would love them and their mother with everything I could muster, and as Atticus said, see it through no matter what. Most of all fatherhood for me is about asking God every morning before my feet hit the floor to supply me with the grace to keep that promise for another twenty-four hours.

It reminds me of a fatherhood moment a few years back with my son in Vermont. It is about one of those blessed days when you realize just how glorious and sacred the vocation of fatherhood really is, even if you aren’t Atticus Finch.

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