By Rick Kaempfer
I was watching one of my favorite TV shows a few weeks ago (The Colbert Report) and something unexpected happened. I got a little verklempt.
Colbert does a comedy show, but on this Tuesday night he did a lengthy piece about his Dad–and it was totally serious. In 1969 his father negotiated an end to the African-American hospital workers strike in South Carolina with civil rights leader Andrew Young. Young was Colbert’s in-studio guest on Tuesday night, and he praised the elder Colbert as a voice of reason in a time of great turmoil. The younger Colbert, the stone-faced deadpan humorist, very briefly lost the battle with his emotions for a split second. His face swelled with pride, and his eyes welled up.
Mine did too.
My wife watched the same thing and didn’t see it at all.
What can I say? It’s a dad thing. Every man I know has father issues, but for people like Stephen Colbert–who lost his father when he was young, those issues run deep. I could see it in his eyes.
And I could see it in my eyes. I also lost my dad when I was young. I also have great pride in my father. I also have people tell me stories about my dad with the same passion and respect that Andrew Young professed to Colbert.
I don’t care who you are–that will make you a little verklempt.
It makes your mind go there, to that place you don’t normally allow yourself to go. You suddenly miss your dad so much you can’t bear it.
My dad has been gone so long I can’t even hear his voice anymore. That’s probably one of the reasons I have so overcompensated with my own boys. I’ve tried to use my father as a model—his steady temperament and his guiding hand, while trying to give them what he couldn’t give me...time. It’s one of the reasons I’ve decided to stay home and raise them.
In the one split second I saw Stephen Colbert drop the facade, that’s what was going through my mind.
And I got a little verklempt.
(Here's something else that will get you a little verklempt on Abraham Lincoln's birthday: Honest Abe. Thank you child poet David Stern for touching my heart.)
This originally appeared on my blog at NWI Parent, "Father Knows Nothing." If you haven't yet checked out "Father Knows Nothing", there are several new columns there that I haven't shared here at Suburban Man headquarters.Click here to see them.
