Make a Dad (MAD)

It's make a dad day.

Sorta outa Texas Shooter Jennings [Earlier: Tuned In] is releasing Waylon Forever, a duet album with son and band backing daddy Waylon, whose been gone (physically, not musically) since 2002.

Up in Calgary is the premiere of "Hockey Dad: A Play in Three Periods," the dramedy of a fictional pop discovering himself in the locker room the night of a father-daughter hockey game.

Coming in the spring — or sooner if the CW network has fielded too many failing shows in their fall lineup &mdas; is "Surviving Suburbia," a sit-com where stand-up smuttist Bob Saget plays dysfunctional dad (although married) of three instead of angelic dad (while single) of four as he did in "Full House."

Finally, waiting in Minnesota, are kids of all ages whose life will change if into their lives will come men who want to act like dads. The payoff for the men is the chance to make or (re)make their own lives and those of some children who can use father-like guidance and wisdom.

And so we go from make-a-dad to make-a-dad's-day.

Bitter/Sweet

There are other judges available, but I'd say words failed playwright Tracy Letts when he could only muster up, "it's bittersweet."

Thus, was his verbal reaction to winning a 2008 Pulitzer Prize for his play, "August: Osage Country." But what did he feel inside for the success of the play that was also the Broadway acting debut [Earlier: Father Fictions] of his dad, Dennis, who passed away in February, shortly after leaving the case.?

Actually, what does any child really feel when he or she wants to share joys or sorrows with the man who isn't there? And what can a father do about it?

Probably not too surprisingly, two very different legacies for children are created by a man of science and man of religion. But what joins them is that they are both creations the children can share ... and when they do a little bit of dad will always be with them.

Billy Graham, nearing the end of his life, created a model and context for daughter Ruth. Having lived a country music song — experiencing three failed marriages and her children's drug abuse struggles and teen pregnancy — she is now following in her father's ministry, traveling the country and preaching. She carries her dad's words in her heart ("We all live under grace and do the best we can.") and answers questions about her father in every church to which she takes her show.

A much less religious legacy is being created by Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon professor with pancreatic cancer who is devoting his remaining time to making movies for and playing with children Dylan, 6; Logan, 4; and Chloe, nearly 2 — in addition to being a bemused spectator as the lecture he created for them but gave to the CM community becomes a viral blockbuster. [Earlier: Death Be Not]. The hour-plus video, a lecture on life entitled Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams, was his attempt to speak directly to his kids when they're older and he won't be there every day to provide the wisdom and comfort they'll seek.

A lot of words from everyone, but, ultimately, between father and child it's actions: words fail.

** Say enough to support your actions; and do enough to prove your words. **

Big Daddy, Crazy Daddy

Your child's story is their own, except that it's yours. Nobody offers that insight better than Tennessee Williams the gay son of an abusive father.

Born Thomas Lanier Williams in Mississippi, the childless playwright dissected the father-son synergy in what is often a throwaway subplot of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." (Currently on Broadway with James Earl Jones as the Big Daddy every actor in the part has been measured against even without knowing.) While the drama is usually billed as a star turn for Maggie, the unsatisfied wife of ex-football star Brick. But in every production whether she shines and Brick's failure comes across as pathos not bathos depends on the the success of the actor playing Brick's father, Big Daddy.

More often, writers just have dads coming along for the ride in their child's life, as does Steve Tolz. In "A Fraction of the Whole," he provides a round-the-world romp where a son in rebelling against the world as he finds it tries to both embrace and repulse his crazy father.

** Is there a certain imitative effect on fathers from experiencing art imitating life? **

Sonday

In the schoolyard or on tv in a time of striking writers the taunt may be "My Dad Is Better than Your Dad," [ Earlier: Is Too; Is Not; Is Too ...], but as everyone knows who has ever been touched by a psychology course — or known a girl who has — the real competition is Oedipal, how does baby bear stack up against papa bear ... and the answer is almost never "just right."

Competition doesn't have to be violent, with the father dying by the son's hand:



but there is competition. Dale Earnhardt Jr. will always live in his dad's shadow, even if Hendrick Motorsports teammate Tony Stewart believes, "He learned a lot from his dad, and I’m not sure he’s not better than his dad in all honesty.”

And whether or not Jason Reitman wins his Best Picture Oscar for Juno [Earlier: Pregnant Thoughts], a feat his director father Ivan has not, he'll still be working under/with/against a legacy, "I have one of the greatest comedy directors of all time on speed dial ... You don't think I'm going to call?"

** For some, every day of the week is Sonday. **