Happy Father's Day

I quite enjoyed this essay from Sunday's New York Times. You should read the entire thing, but to whet your appetite, a few sentences wholly out of context:

From his ship, he had once written her, "I like the morning watch best, in spite of having to get up at 3:15 a.m. to start it, for there is something very pleasant about starting the watch in total darkness -- often with no visibility whatever, and gradually, imperceptibly, have a little light steal over the ship, coming from no apparent source."

As the author so vividly concludes:

My comfortable present swung like a door giving on the past as I realized that this man had not been put here solely to buy me Good Humors and make sure that I got to bed on time.