Comments on: Fathers and hearts

By: meems

meems — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 14:50:44 +0000

Thanks for this moving and thoughtful post.
I’m in a really similar situation as you are and I understand many of the dynamics you write about now and wrote about in your previous post. My husband & I have been teaching internationally for many years and we (as do all the ex-pat teachers I know) always have our parents on our minds. What aren’t they telling us? For my husband, his dad concealed many very serious health issues from him because he didn’t want him to “worry.”

I just arrived in California a few days ago, getting to know my family again, trying to make up for lost time as I do every year. Thanks again for the post.

By: John C.

John C. — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 10:38:05 +0000

My parents and I have a long history of denying the severity of health problems to each other. My wife comes from a family with similar practices. It may be what drew us together.

By: Tracy M

Tracy M — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 06:07:06 +0000

Thanks for sharing Norbert. I wish you and your family well on this journey.

By: Norbert

Norbert — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 05:58:57 +0000

Thanks for the kind words.

bbell, I am about to exit my 30s. Gulp.

By: Elouise

Elouise — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 01:06:06 +0000

Thank you, Norbert, for opening YOUR heart to us.

If the following is a threadjack, my apologies. But it is very definitely about fathers and hearts. It is a recommendation for a film, available through netflix.com, through probably not at your local video store. Called MY FATHER, MY LORD, it is a 2008 film from Israel, a contemporary film about a very Orthodox Jewish father and his only child, a young son. (It’s in Hebrew with subtitles, but that matters not at all.) A quiet, intense and intimate film, this is not one for young children (under 12, I’d say) to see simply because it has a hugely sad ending (though not a single gory detail or anything of that sort. In fact, the ending has no dialogue nor any melodramatic overlay.)) It is so very tender, full of love, both within the little family and in the father’s great and consuming love for God and the Torah . Every review I have read sings its praises, as do I. It’s one that could be easily missed, and shouldn’t be.

By: Jami

Jami — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 00:26:34 +0000

Beautiful, Norbert. Thank you.

By: Steve Evans

Steve Evans — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 22:29:18 +0000

Norbert, you’re the best. Thanks.

By: Bob

Bob — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 22:28:37 +0000

I am 64 and am starting to feel the roles reverse. It’s a very odd feeling. My kids are starting to ‘look after me’. No more my getting on the roof, no more being called on to help them move something heavy. I go into my garage and see tools I will never use again. If the son or son-in-law borrows one, I tell them don’t bother bringing it back. At best, I can play the role of the sage for them, but I know that too will pass.
***Who started this post anyway!?

By: J. Stapley

J. Stapley — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 22:09:30 +0000

Thanks for this Norbert; you have communicated well the poignancy of this all.

By: Ben Pratt

Ben Pratt — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 21:22:33 +0000

Wow. I thank you who are ahead of me on the path of life, and who share so willingly. I will reach similar points in the future, and I am grateful for the opportunity to consider them before I get there.