What can you really say about the man who brought you up?  I was only allowed to see my dad on weekends because he and my mother divorced when I was very young, but my memories of time spent with him is perhaps more vivid than time spent at home (sorry, Mom).

I think my dad really tried to raise me with a different hand than his father raised him.  I don't recall much in the way of punishment dealt out by my father, but he still taught me well.  I don't recall much of him telling me when he was disappointed, but he always made sure to tell me when he was proud of me.

I have always been allowed to pursue my dreams.  My mother and father saw to it that I followed my own path, but I think it was my father's endeavor towards his Master's which told me it was okay to follow my own drummer.  He was determined in his pursuits, which instilled in me a similar determination.

Thanks to my father, I have always been able to focus on the thing I want, and get it.  Whether it's something as small as a CD or DVD or grand as a Bachelor's degree in Theatre.  Drive and ambition in life can be well and good, but there must also be a guiding hand, a moral center.  My mother provided this by dragging me to church every Sunday and I thank her for that, but my father instilled a deeper moral sense in me, the responsibility to one's self that has followed me to this day.

I am responsible for me and my actions, no one else, not even God.  As my dad has intimated, God may be up there, He might not be, but He's not responsibility for an athlete winning a World Series or an actor winning an Oscar, that athlete and that actor are responisible for that.  And that is why I thank you, Dad.  You have taught me not only to step to the beat of my own drummer, but to take responsibility for those steps as well.  Happy Father's day.