Father's Day - It's Complicated

This is the photo I usually change my Facebook profile pic to around Father's Day every year. It is my favorite photo of me and my Dad, Louis, when I was *almost* an adult - taken the autumn of my senior year in high school, 1960. I was 17, Dad was 43.
My family got its first television in 1954, the same year Father Knows Best premiered. (The final episode was 1960 - the same year this photo was taken.) I wanted the kind of Dad the TV Betty had. Instead, I got a 'Father Knows Best' who thought telling me how I should behave, think, act, was how my life was to be lived.
I had 34 Father's Days with my Dad. He died in the month before the 35th. My last day with him was one of contention with him still telling me all the things I was doing wrong and how I should be conducting my life.
So, I started writing this with the idea of revisiting the hows and whys of this post title, Father's Day - It's Complicated. Yes, I love/loved my Dad, but my memories of him tend to be more about what was wrong with our relationship than what was right. Do I tend to dwell more on the negatives than the positives, probably.

Then I started going through my previous blogs about my childhood, looking for photos with my Dad I have posted before, reading words I have written over the past nine years. And I find a trove of good memories.

So, instead of remembering the times with Dad that were less than what I needed or wanted them to be, I should concentrate more on the good times. Perhaps I will realize, after forty years without him, that Father's Day isn't so complicated after all.
As my wise and wonderful husband just said: "You're a writer, you need to re-write your story."

So, Happy Father's Day, Dad. I love and miss you, and Mom, both.