{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Father's Day","description":"Father's Day is Sunday. I've done some brilliant things on Father's Day and Mother's Day. And I've made some bone-headed mistakes. Transcript: Father\u2019s Day is Sunday. I hope all you fathers have a wonderful, celebratory, appreciation filled day. And I hope that you with fathers still alive offer the same yours. My newly widowed father simply wants a phone call. That plus a year\u2019s supply of casseroles. I remember a conversation with my mother years ago. My children were entering their teens, and I asked my mother at what age does a child become grateful for the extraordinary amount of work parents do for them. At what age will my children turn to my wife and me and say, \u201cThank You for all you\u2019ve done.\u201d And my Mom\u2019s reply? \u201cWe\u2019re still waiting,\u201d which stung a bit. Speaking of mother\u2019s, I remember a Mother\u2019s Day when I was a teen. My father and mother told my brothers and me that on the Sunday of Mother\u2019s Day, Mom didn\u2019t want much, just something to acknowledge her \u2013 something that reminds us of her, and they left it up to us. When Sunday morning came, my brothers and I had done nothing. We just never got around to it and, wow, what a mistake. I remember my mother\u2019s oceans of tears, and I remember how upset my father was and I have never missed a Mother\u2019s Day and, in fact, today I over-prepare for the Mother\u2019s Days in our household. I used to take my kids to a florist and tell each of my four kids to pick out five flowers that make them think of their mother. My wife would get a large random arrangement of twenty flowers that was not particularly attractive, but each flower had a story of why it reminded one of my children of their mother and the kids would go through each one of the flowers one by one with her. My brothers and I have given my father fruit trees for Father\u2019s Day for as long as I remember. None of them ever survived. And by now his camp in Clark Country would be full of mature fruit trees but the soil or the climate or something kills them every time. We\u2019ve stopped and now just make a sincere and grateful phone call which I\u2019ll do early Sunday morning. Around my house this past week, my wife and children have been finding sheets of paper with a short list of Father\u2019s Day gift ideas on it. I\u2019ve printed about ten of them and placed them in strategic places \u2013 on toilet seats, in cereal boxes. Some items are very practical \u2013 for example a couple new pair of short pants, some are helpful \u2013 like a full detailing of my car, and some are highly aspirational, like a bottle of Macallan 18 scotch which is both crazy expensive and hard to find and I\u2019d feel guilty that that much money was spent on me for something that will be slowly, deliciously, intentionally, and reverently consumed only on perfect days with choirs of angels singing from the heavens in the background. It would be, though, the perfect way for my family to say \u201cthanks, Dad.\u201d Are you listening? I\u2019m Cam Marston and I\u2019m just trying to Keep It Real. ","author_name":"Keepin' It Real with Cam Marston","author_url":"https:\/\/cammarston.com\/keepin-it-real-with-cam-marston\/","html":"