Sins of the Father.

I know you try your best and sometimes even beyond that. Its quite
unsettling for a child, the realization that you aren't all-knowing
and semi-omniscient. That you aren't always in control and that you
too make the most intense of blunders.
But I know you do all that you can, heart and soul. Its just the
nature of our relationship- one in which probably no mortal man can be
perfect.
Yes, it was unsettling, all those years ago, when I realized that you
were only human. It was unsettling, all those years ago, when in my
anger and relative youth all your flaws became as apparent as the
crags within a newly broken stone under the noonday sun.
Time has smoothed my perception, however, and taught me better. Even
you, so selfless, so ready to sacrifice, so strong and steady within
your beliefs, even you are human after all.
And I love you. And I forgive you. Even for forcing me to make all
these sacrifices- my freedom, my love, my education, my love, my ego,
my love. My love. I love you still, despite having to fight tooth and
nail for freedoms my peers take for granted. Despite not being allowed
to have even as much autonomy as many women in our patriarchal
society. You coddle me, and often suffocate me, make me feel lame and
helpless, and impotent. But I know that wherever I am, you are there
with me. And I forgive you. And I love you. And sometimes, I even
understand.
I thank you for all these sacrifices you've made- whether or not the
reasons behind them were logical or well founded. They were sacrifices
all the same.
Yes, our bond is deep and profound- how quickly, in my heart I go
through a thousand different emotions for all you do. Some darker than
the deepest buried chip of ebony to never have seen the sun. Some as
radiant and brilliant and almost as blinding as virgin snow on a clear
winters morning.
And yet you teach me so many things that I would not do to my own
children.