Not all of us are wordsmiths. Saying it with Hallmark is so much simpler, so much easier than coming up with words of our own to try to say what seems beyond words. What do we say to the man who held onto the bike until we lost our fear, and then had the courage to release us to ride into an uncertain world? What do we say to the man who shaped the frame of our lives with his guidance and his discipline and his wisdom?

"I love you." It can mean so very much. But difficult as these three words are to say, they can be even more difficult to hear. For some, these three words will be exactly right. For others, they may unveil an intimacy that may prove too much.

It may be enough simply to say "Thank you". Surely you don't have to ask for what! And maybe that is all the sentimentality your father may be willing to hear. A simple, sincere "thank you" goes a very long way.

Saying it with something written may be easier than to speak awkward sentimentality out loud. Others, wiser than us, have written on this subject before us. Why not draw from their wisdom?

Fifth Commandment: Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
- Exodus 20:12

Father! - to God himself we cannot give a holier name.
- William Wordsworth

A king, realizing his incompetence, can either delegate or abdicate his duties. A father can do neither. If only sons could see the paradox, they would understand the dilemma.
- Marlene Dietrich

A child looks up at the stars and wonders. Great fathers put a child on his shoulders and helps them to grab a star.
- Reed Markham

It is not flesh and blood but the heart which makes us fathers and sons.
- Johann Schiller

Henry James once defined life as that predicament which precedes death, and certainly nobody owes you a debt of honor or gratitude for getting him into that predicament. But a child does owe his father a debt, if Dad, having gotten him into this peck of trouble, takes off his coat and buckles down to the job of showing his son how best to crash through it.
- Clarence Budington Kelland

When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.
- Mark Twain

And finally, from an anonymous author whose words will echo as long as there are parents and there are children:

"Dad, your guiding hand on my shoulder will remain with me forever."

Learn more about this author, Tenebris.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

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