BONUS BLOG: The Distance Between Dads and Us

John Thomas Vidakovich, or Johnny Vee, and I go back a long way with many astonishing overlaps before we’d ever even met. He wrote this and shared this picture earlier today, and it’s with his graciously expressed permission that I share it with you now – – –

The Gap
Do you see it?
The gap?
Every time I look at this picture, I see it.
And growing up, I felt it.
The distance between father and son.
Emotionally and physically.
I’ve felt hurt by the gap, angered by the gap.
I have been to therapy about it.
Why?
I am older now and I see things differently.
I know now how hard it is to give what you don’t have.
I know now that there are ways to say “I love you” other than words.
I know now that gaps are two-way and that you have to reach out in order to be reached.
I love him more now than ever.
I respect him now more than ever.
The gap is closing.
I only regret that it has taken this long to get there.
I love you Dad.