My father has been gone for close to two decades now. I miss him more than I ever have. I'm still not yet older than he was when he died, and I sense that his life experience could inform me greatly today.  Some sociologists believe that the absence of dads is a big factor in the problems we are facing. There may be many things that our children, collectively, are not hearing from fathers. Not just hard words, either; the list surely includes laughter.

Different Drummer: Jacques Clouseau