Read It, Don't Weep

A child's love in the heart and memories in the head are so much stronger and nuanced than whatever s/he may put into words.

Surely, Doro loves daddy much. But the testimony of daughter to Bush 41 and sister to Bush 43 that is found in this week's objet d'eBay, an autographed never read first edition of My Father, My President, probably pales next to her actual feelings.

While this book seems to have quickly headed to pulp mills without leaving much of a trace — it was published less than two years ago — a father-loving blog has the opportunity for a much longer life. Even so, words of another politician's daughter, these found in McCainBloggette, Meghan's McCain's campaign paean to daddy John, also suggests more than demonstrates her deep feelings for her father ... and surely it is just coincidence that she is feeling the blues in her most recent post (July 23).

Maybe the point is that no matter what is written, the act of writing is the tribute and enough in and of itself. The actual love of a dad is found by what is read into the words. And so, while Tina Maat and Corrie Schuurman have pen palled with each other for 45 years, writing about their own lives, the passion for sharing their lives with someone they would only come to know is a monument to their fathers — the two holocaust survivors who first encouraged them to communicate.

And that is something that can't be auctioned off.