mafungo

As Dad's Day is soon upon us, and this will be my first Dad's Day without a Dad living somewhere near Disney busying himself with "not understanding me", thoughts & supernatural vibrations of him have been coming through me. And your Diva doesn't know quite what to do with them except to be gentle with the memories as they flit and scatter themselves like dandelion seeds throughout my day. This is especially poignant because of my new love , where I help folk make beautiful connection with the esteemed people in their lives with whom they wish to share love and joy.

Episodic pain and awkward sadness is still, quite literally, on the drawing board.

DivaCardista's Dad was special. No, not in the Berenstain Bears kind of way, I mean different. He didn’t get the things most [American] [TV] dads got and still, this was the guy that I called Dad. Archie never quizzed Gloria on the top ten Jamaican root vegetables each time they met. Mr. Brady never took Cindy for long rides to pull garbage while extolling the virtues of hard work and thrift. Why me? I just didn’t get him and he certainly didn’t get me, but there we were. Dad and Diva. Diva and Dad. Muddling through.

Mostly, I loved riding with Dad in his red VW rabbit. Especially at Christmas. He would take me way out somewhere in the far reaches of Queens and re-introduce me to the other three West Indians at his job, I would mumble a shy hello and they would marvel at my American accent, good grades, etc. and then back in the car we’d go to see the lights! (Finally!) It was great riding with Dad in that red rabbit. Oh, dad would probably be holding forth on one of his favorite topics, say “compulsory savings!!!” for instance, and I’d be like “yeah Dad…compulsory savings” all the while taking in and marveling at the kaleidoscope of lights and color.

He taught me how to drive and appreciate/dream in color in that car. He taught me how to save money. He taught me a lot of things, including how to read and write. No dad, no blog. No dad, no art. Who knew?

And I think that he would have gotten a real kick out of knowing that mere thoughts of him could be monetized. He would have loved that to pieces.

This goes out to all of us in these next few days as we gently recall the moral poundings of our dear old dads.

Blessings,
DivaCardista