I lost my dad December 31, 2014. I spend a lot of time thinking about him every year around Father’s Day. He was a good man. He married my mom, a single mother of five, and raised us all as his own.
My favorite thing about my dad was his sense of humor. If there is anything I got from him, it was certainly a love of terrible jokes. I remember one day, after a baseball game, we were driving past a Taco Bell. Back then Taco Bell called their Mexican pizza the Pizzazz. I begged him to stop, “Dad, I want a pizzazz!” To which he exclaimed, “A piece of what?!?”
It’s bizarrely my favorite memory of him. We laughed so hard at that stupid joke.
It must have been tough for him, stepping in as the father of five, three of which were older and had been raised by someone else. My one brother and I were too little to remember a time before him.
I don’t think I was an easy kid for him either. I was a bit of a momma’s boy who would rather be on stage than on a baseball field. I am sure it was a culture shock for him when I came out, and not one that I think he wanted to deal with, but he did — admirably.
I have another prevalent memory of my dad that didn’t end in laughter. As I alluded to, my family was a baseball family. We went to the baseball fields every weekend and were there all day. My brothers were baseball rockstars as they always made the All-Star teams. Then there was me. Sure, I enjoyed playing, but I wasn’t that good.
I remember I was playing in the Winter Park Little League near the end of my baseball career. You eventually age out of little league and have to rely on high school sports to carry you further. It was not in the cards for me.
In this particular game my team was down by one run in the bottom of the seventh inning. For the non-sports fans out there, this means it was my team’s last chance to score. I was the lead off batter in our last at bat of the game. I can’t be sure, but I’d bet the people in the dugout and in the stands figured I was good for our first out of the inning. That was also not in the cards for me. Miraculously, I got a hit up the middle.
I made my way to first base and saw my dad on his feet, cheering as if to scream, “That’s my boy!” He made his way down the first base line to stand at the fence right next to me. He was clapping and cheering and I was on cloud nine. Unfortunately I got picked off immediately. I glanced back at my dad and he was shaking his head as he walked back to the stands.
As devastating as that was for me at the time, It makes me laugh to think about now. Although I felt I let him down in that moment, I am sure that he felt he let me down when he found out I saw him shaking his head.
We both stumbled that day, no one is perfect. We all have our off days. It’s how we handle those moments that make us who we are.
Recently, many of us watched our president stumble. There is no way around it, it was a horrible night that brought back a lot of PTSD from the 2016 election. I felt myself shaking my head in disappointment. However, it’s what we do now that defines that moment.
I’ve seen the panic set in on social media, people calling for a change in the ticket and a contested convention.
I just want to remind everyone that Joe Biden is our current president. He is currently running the country and he has been doing right by us this whole time. There are many more examples of him being the leader we need than there are moments where he stumbles. There are teams of professionals around him that know him much better than all of us. If they have his back, then I have his back. If he stays in the race I fully support him. If he steps out, I fully support his replacement.
I know it is our party’s nature to question everything and I think that makes us strong. Although in this case, I think we need a united front. We need to support our candidate. There is too much at stake. Chaos will breed chaos and we can’t afford that.
This year Watermark celebrates 30 years as your LGBTQ+ news source. Starting with this issue until our 30th Anniversary issue in August, we will highlight the stories that made up our pages with a retrospective look back. This time we take a look at 2019.
We strive to bring you a variety of stories, your stories. I hope you enjoy this latest issue.
