{"id":2712,"date":"2023-06-16T07:49:48","date_gmt":"2023-06-16T11:49:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=2712"},"modified":"2023-06-16T07:50:38","modified_gmt":"2023-06-16T11:50:38","slug":"happy-thoughts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2023\/06\/16\/happy-thoughts\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy Thoughts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to this reflection as a podcast, <\/em>click here<\/a>.
 
For a number of men, Father\u2019s Day can be tough.
 
A middle-aged man recently wrote, \u201cI hate Father\u2019s Day.  It takes me hours to find a card.  All the cards have sentiments that don\u2019t fit \u2013 \u2018Dad, you\u2019re a pal,\u2019 or \u2018I\u2019ve always been able to count on you,\u2019 or \u2018You taught me how to be a man,\u2019 or \u2018Let\u2019s go hunting.\u2019  They don\u2019t have any that say, \u2018Dad you were a mean-spirited snake who scared the wits out of us and broke our mother\u2019s heart.\u2019\u201d 
 
Film director Steven Spielberg wouldn\u2019t say that his dad was a mean-spirited snake.  But the two of them were never close \u2013 a painful memory that he incorporated into a number of his early features. 
 
For instance, both E.T. the Extraterrestrial<\/em> and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade<\/em> portray the aching reality of an absent father, and how the son who is left behind must learn to fend for himself emotionally. 
 
Spielberg openly admits that his movie Hook<\/em>, based on the story of Peter Pan, reflects experiences from his own life.
 
Robin Williams plays Peter Banning, an obsessive workaholic who has forgotten that in his childhood he really was Peter Pan.  When he goes with his family to London to visit Wendy Darling, who is now an old woman, he describes his work buying and selling other corporations in search of profit.  \u201cWhy Peter,\u201d Wendy says in alarm, \u201cyou\u2019ve become a pirate!\u201d
 
Peter\u2019s wife and children are little more than props in his life.  They\u2019re not fooled.  They know they are peripheral to his goals.  Spielberg recognized that his own drivenness was threatening to destroy his chances of connecting emotionally with his kids.
 
In the movie, the ruthless Captain Hook kidnaps Peter\u2019s 12-year-old son Jack and seven-year-old daughter Maggie.  He uses them as bait to trick Peter into a final fight to the death. 
 
But Peter has lost his identity.  He\u2019s no longer Peter Pan.  And he doesn\u2019t even know how to locate the zip code for being an effective father.  Jack despises him. 
 
If only he could fly, the way he used to.  Tinkerbell reminds him that all he needs to get off the ground is one happy thought.
 
Where in the world will Peter ever find that? <\/em>
 
When the climactic battle finally unfolds, Peter is airborne.  His children stare at him, incredulously.  Their dad is really a magical figure?<\/em>  Peter soars up to his son and says, \u201cI found my happy thought, Jack.  Want to know what it was?  It was you.<\/em>\u201d 
 
How many kids in the real world have hoped against hope that they might one day hear such a transforming word from their father?
 
Captain Hook briefly traps Peter and brandishes his hook, menacingly, near his face.  Then he launches a full assault on his identity: \u201cYou know you\u2019re not really Peter Pan, don\u2019t you?  This is only a dream.   When you wake up, you\u2019ll just be Peter Banning \u2013 a cold, selfish man who drinks too much, is obsessed with success, and runs and hides from his wife and children.\u201d
 
First the Lost Boys, and then his own children respond: \u201cI believe in you.\u201d 
 
How many dads in the real world have wondered if they have ever managed to inspire such affection in the hearts of their kids \u2013 and then wonder, in desperation, if it\u2019s not too late for such a thing to happen? 
 
If we could write a prescription for this Father\u2019s Day, what might it be?
 
How about this: that dads and their kids of all ages might discover, even in the midst of a broken world, that they can still be at the heart of each other\u2019s happiest thoughts.
 
This weekend may our Father in heaven help make it so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. For a number of men, Father\u2019s Day can be tough. A middle-aged man recently wrote, \u201cI hate Father\u2019s Day.  It takes me hours to find a card.  All the cards have sentiments that don\u2019t fit \u2013 \u2018Dad, you\u2019re a pal,\u2019 or \u2018I\u2019ve always been able to count on you,\u2019 or \u2018You taught me… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2713,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[606,336],"class_list":["post-2712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-fathers","tag-parenting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2712"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2715,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2712\/revisions\/2715"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}