#8 A Gift of Laughter

The story is about the relationship between a father and his son. The father, named Allan, gets a reminder when his son reacts to a specific episode with slamming the door in anger (p. 30).  This make Allen think about when he self slammed the door when he was a young boy and he realized that he slammed the door because he was hurt. He remember how his mother and grandmother set up this “act” so he would feel better, and maybe even more important: that they listened and treated him with respect.

And then he has to admit that his son had a point. He has long days at work and are stressed about money, based on his own thoughts on page 32 where he says that ha need a shave when he comes home in the end of the day and based on the argue his son was interrupting on page 29, which was about money.

I think that everyone needs a reminder sometime. It’s human being to lose the track, especially if you think you are doing the best for your family or friends. Like Allan stresses about work and money so his family can have everything they need, then it’s easy to forget that they might rather want a husband and dad who’s there for them.

Actually, this reminds me about the relationship between my father and me. My father was a “perfect” child, he had a few friends and was happy with that. Didn’t drink or smoke and got good grades at school. And then me who started to drink and partying when I was fourteen years old. Didn’t do it great at school but okay and was hanging out with friends in the spare time.  My dad could never really accepted the fact that I care a lot more about the social part rather than he did when he was young. This has been an endless argue between us, and sometimes it still is. That’s why I’m closer to my mum, we grow up the same place and she was a party girl when she was young too. So then I could be more honest to her because I knew she had been through the same and would take that with her consideration and not just judge me.

So, the point is, since my father never really listened to me or could understand why friends and partying was such a big part of me, I stopped letting him take a part of my life. I closed him out. And that’s probably what Allan’s son would do too if Allan didn’t realize he was behaving badly.