untamed heart.

In one of my many visits to Barnes and Noble over the past couple of weeks, hiding underneath many of other titles in the Father's Day display as if waiting to be found, I stumbled across a book with a very disturbing title: "Why a Daughter Needs a Dad".

I can only imagine what the book is about as I refused to actually sit there and read it; however, based on my own experience, the title of this book alone conveys the idea that this book is completely full of shit.

I am not bitter; and what's more, I am not looking to diminish every woderful existing father/daughter relationship out there. It just seems to me that a title like that is an exaggeration to the millionth degree. I, as a daughter, don't think that daughters NEED dads. Sure, dads are nice to have around but you don't need them. Kinda like sex: It's nice if you have it, but it's not like you are going to drop dead if you don't!

I've had four dads in my life, and on the most part, I think that to an extent they have helped shape my life in the sense that they have thought me about different things and helped me appreciate things I may have otherwise never been exposed to. Now, do I think that I NEEDED to learn the things these men thought me? hard to say, but I'm sure that had it been that important and had they not been around, my mom would have taught me.

Need is such a strong word and fatherhood is such a tricky thing. The link between mother and child is so obvious but a father can feel at times like nothing more than a sperm donor! Right now I'm sitting here trying to think back on a time when I felt like I may have NEEDED a dad in my 25.75 years of life and I can't think of one time. It's actually kind of sad. Though then again, in the words of the fox in The Little Prince: "you become responsible for what you tame". Maybe none of my 4 dads ever tamed me at all...