Step-fathers's Day

It will surprise no one, not even not-Catholics, that the patron saint of fathers is Joseph.  Which is funny really, because he is not actually on record as anybody's father.  Which means that the patron saint of fathers was actually a step-father.  As a person who has a much better relationship with my step-father than my biological father -in all fairness I have a much better relationship with Sarah Palin than I have with my biological father & Mrs. Palin & I have never ever met, nor are we likely to & if we did I cannot imagine either one of us would have three nice things to say about the other; I think you know where I am going with this...  As a person who has a much better relationship with my step-father than my biological father, the message of this is not lost.

This Joseph, for those who have not figured it out, is not the guy with the coat of many colors.  For the record that one is not a saint.  This Joseph is the one who married Mary, went to Bethlehem, got the short end of a fiscal negotiation with an unscrupulous innkeeper, left town with a child that was not his, raised that child (including but not limited to hunting him down in the temple when the precocious little angel went a-wandering) & the rest is history...or not, depending on how you look at these things.  Go ahead & read the gospels from Joseph's point of view; can't you see him secretly LONGING for joint custody?  Just one day a week when his father-father had to deal with the holier-than-thou little monster he created?

Anyhow, today is Father's Day in the US; not last Sunday which is when I called my own step-father to wish him a happy Father's Day.  This is not the first time I have observed Father's Day a week early, either.  Clearly I have an issue.  Maybe I should just move it all to March 19 (the actual feast day of Joseph) & be done with it.  I could sing the only song I know about Joseph & be completely out of season in that way, too.

So, in conclusion today is Father's Day but it is not the feast day of the patron saint of fathers who was himself not a father.  Got it?  Good.  Oh & a most happy father's day all the other 364-give-or-take to all the faux-fathers who do the heavy lifting.  If it were not for a guy like you, christianity would never have happened.