When my mother suggested I’d get a flower for my father for father’s day, I looked at her like she had gone crazy. “But it’s a nice gesture,” she said.

Flowers is just not something you do on fathers’ day. And you know what, I don’t know why’s that.

Among the days specified by some unknown entity for us to remember our parents, fathers’ day takes a backseat for the more “important” mothers’ day. Even companies don’t bombard you with the same quantity of ads and you don’t even feel as guilty for not worrying about what gift you’d be getting your father.

It could be that fathers are always less emotional than mothers and you’d therefore assume they don’t care as much about their day as mothers care about theirs. But a gift must be bought!

I actually have no idea what gift someone can get their father for their day. What sort of gift would make your father transiently happy?

Then I remembered something. My father is prouder of me than my mother, if that’s even possible. And while I hate it when I find myself in a social setting and he starts bragging about what a son he has, I can see exactly how much that means to him.

With each passing day where my brothers and I make my father proud, we’re turning his day into father’s day.

God Bless my father. God Bless all the fathers whose influence over our lives is very under-appreciated. And may all of the people I know who have lost their father find solace on this day.

On a happier, less depressing note, check out this very poignant comic by Sareen Akharjalian whose blog is full of awesome and funny material (check her blog here):