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A salute to those who show up everyday, who fill the role of dad, stepfather, father-in-law, grandfather or who provide a father figure in the lives of others. You don’t have to be a biological father to have the role of father. So pet dads, here’s to you too!

Hopefully, we all have such a person who provided kindness, support and love, even on those occasions when we may not have deserved it. That’s another important trait – forgiveness. Fathers come in all ages, ethnicities, personalities, relationship status, colors, levels of experience, and gender. It’s not the outside that makes the father, it’s what is on the inside.

Father’s Day used to be about neckties or pipe tobacco or aftershave or slippers. Maybe dad has a day without working in the yard, or completing that honey-do list but probably still firing up the grill. Celebrating father’s reaches back to 1910 in Spokane, Washington, when Sonora Smart Dodd persuaded the State of Washington to recognize a Father’s Day. Jump ahead to 1966, President Lyndon Johnson issued the first proclamation recognizing the third Sunday in June each year as Father’s Day. Six years later it became an official federal holiday. Hallmark Cards was probably lobbying for this action. Gifting is swell, but it’s really about showing that you appreciate what that someone does those other 364 days of the year.

It took awhile, but a great father came into my life a little more than 50 years ago. He’s been gone eight years now and his presence is missed. He’s was a terrific man, whose heart was enormous, and despite being a longtime bachelor, warmly embraced a large (and growing) family. He was a foundation of our world.

Father’s Day is a time to recognize and celebrate all of our “fathers”, past and present.

Further reading: My stepfather was The Best Man