Sons Learn, Daughters Forgive or Forget

Arbitrarily grabbing from the news does make one wonder if boys and girls think about their fathers the same way?

There is the essay of remembrance found in the Toronto Globe and Mail that suggests, "a man can never fully understand or appreciate his father until he has become one himself." Message received, a boy will always question dad but eventually learn from him.

But daughters think differently. They forgive. Particularly when they get to go to a party if you consider the situation of Ireland Baldwin, 13 and target of a father's telephonic rage [Earlier: Those Who Can't, Write], stepping out with dad at the SAG awards, apparently forgiving his insults and temper for the chance to go to a party looking like a grown-up princess.

Girls can also very easily forget as evidenced by the dreams of her father that Sonja Karadzic has. SK's father is Radovan Karadzic, the leader of the Serbian nationalists who massacred Bosnians as the former Yugoslavia unravelled and burned in the 1990s. According to her daughter, dad had nothing to do with war crimes, it was U.S. president Bill Clinton who should be on trial in Geneva for the war crimes of which her father is accused. She was there. She knows her dad. She doesn't understand why nobody believes her about his innocence.

Imagine the party Radovan threw or will be willing to throw for Sonja.