Do you love your father enough to cut off his arm? Would you want your child to cut off your arm as a show of love?
What if a father's life were at stake?
These are the questions that come first to mind after reading about how a 72-year-old Swedish man was saved from being chipped and chopped when his son sliced through flesh and bone to free him from a machine the two were using to deforest their little bit of Olofström.
St. Joseph (father of Jesus and thus "patron saint of fathers") was feted March 19 and May 1. Belatedly, we offer these love stories in his honor as well. First there's US Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan's becoming a judge (in part) because her father would read her news of the world every morning on the crosstown bus that took her to elementary school. And then there's the Facebook matchup made by Andy Spiers-Corbett, 39, and father Graham, after their 37 years of separation.
So Feb. 14 and St. Valentine gets a lot of press, but at least this year, we're May 11 and St. Joseph and love between fathers and children is a much greater holiday.
It's nearly spring. Everything is about to bloom and so it's time for the seeds of affection to burst and bloom into love songs, father-child tunes of adoration and devotion.
Among the most serious to note is the music that will make up part of "The Gloria Song," a concert of Kansan Dana Mengel's chorales to raise funds to support the continuing treatment of his 10-year-old daughter, Gloria, whose brain tumor has forced her to endure multiple rounds of chemotherapy and now radiation.
A composer with more swing to his step these days is Aaron J. Johnson, who has packed nine of his own compositions and a cover of Joe Henderson's "Our Thing" into his new "Songs of Our Fathers," dedicated honorably enough to his dad.
Two pops still without recording contracts or much more than heart and homemade videos are RudeRocker and UkuleleRocker, but they too have some words in their head and music in their heart about their kids that just need to be shared:
From classical to kitsch, it's all about the love.
It is impossible not to be moved by a father's love. It may be youtubed and mawkish, sappy and even a big self-indulgent. But someone else's home movies are still wonderful. Touching every year ... and, thankfully, every year it grows shorter. Shorter, without yet losing any of its effect.
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When they all get strung together into some sort of 21st birthday feature length production it will surely be too much. For now, a moment or two looking at a tribute to a father's love should be enough to remind you of your own.
