On Being Dad…or Pops…or Fava…

Father’s Day in my home growing up was an event. While the whole event was designed to surprise our father with breakfast in bed and a bottle of Hai Karate, it was all orchestrated by my mother, who without a doubt, made sure our father was in the right place at the right time to receive our awkwardly wrapped tokens of love and illegible cards scripted in crayon. What was most amazing was the Oscar-worthy expressions of what’s all this from my father each and every year. As a child I wondered, were we that good?

Actually, the secret to a great Father’s Day is a great relationship with father. The day marked an annual culmination of good times, discipline, moments of clarity, and revelations of who our father really was. While he was never campaigning for Father of the Year, every now and then he would do something, say something, or take us somewhere that was added to the highlight reel of our lives.

Now as a father myself, I too enjoy acting like I didn’t know the day is Father’s Day. I openly question my three kids, why are you guys serving me breakfast in bed? What’s this tie for? It’s all part of the ceremony–which I learned from my father. Now, being the Modern Dad that I am, I do openly mention that I am campaigning for Father of the Year when my children and I have a super special moment: be it riding the craziest ride at an amusement park (and not holding my lunch—that’s what dads do), surprising them with something their hearts desired, or simply offering the right words when they feel things have gone wrong.

While I can’t say I knew everything about my father, he was there every day and a lot of my discovery of who he was outside of his role was discovered by observations, by the stories he told, or through the tales of family. What I do know most about him was that he was there…everyday! When his car pulled up in the evening, time stopped momentarily, either to prepare to share something cool that happened in school or to get ready because something was broken or a report card…well, you know. But all in all, his coming through the door was more than an expectation, it was just part of nature, like taking your next breath. This is something I have created for my children.

Just as my job as a father is to help my children with the lessons of life, I learn everyday what being a father is all about. Sometimes the lessons come from my home. Other times it is from the observations of other fathers. Sometimes it is from fatherless children. In all of these lessons, I constantly evaluate and re-evaluate the kind of father I want to be and the model of a father I hope my children take with them.

I miss my father. He passed away 18 years ago, just as I was on the crest of a major phase of my life. Although there are times I wish I had his advice and guidance for career issues, with financial questions, and child rearing, the truth is that I already have the answers. His consistency in my life provided the blueprint needed for me to construct the kind of Father-ness I want for myself and children.

I know and understand that not every child is blessed to experience what I have experienced. I know that there are father’s out there who are not connected to their children. That is why I treasure what I have and make sure that when I am no longer on the scene my children will say, “That’s what Pops would say!” (Yes, that’s one of the many things they call me.)

Well, Sunday’s coming and it’s time to get ready for my close up…and I love it!

 

Happy Father’s Day!

Guy A. Sims is the author of the novel, Living Just A Little, and the crime novella, The Cold Hard Cases of Duke Denim.  He is also the head writer of the Brotherman: Dictator of Discipline comic book series and the forthcoming Brotherman graphic novel, Revelation.  BCEPressworks.com

The Garvey Protocol: A Review

Where the Spook Sat By The Door, The Garvey Protocol Kicks It Down

Reviewed by Guy A. Sims

 If you hadn’t noticed that young African American males were disappearing in large numbers from  American urban  centers then they have achieved their mission.  If you have an idea that something  wrong is going on in the black  community and the problems are centered on drugs, crime, or  unemployment, then you’re being deceived.  If you  know that the young African American male is  the prime target of a clandestine group supported by the United  States Government…then you’re  next!

 

The Garvey Protocol: Inspired by true events, the novel (2012) by author/poet/educator Eric Christopher Webb weaves together a tale based on the whispers from barbershops and categorically denied classified documents of the U.S. government hidden away in ghost files.  A thrilling run down side streets of Pittsburg, PA to claustrophobic rides beneath our nation’s capital, The Garvey Protocol requires the reader to take a deep breath with each turn of the page.  It is a story of intrigue where a simple gaze at a video image taken by happenstance brings forth faceless assassins with “right between the eyes” as their target.  District of Columbia reporter, Cinque Solomon, a survivor of the streets and journalistic politics, finds himself swirling deeper and deeper in a whirlpool of government backed cover-ups, deceptive diversions, conferred conspiracies, and the bitter pill of paranoia.  What begins as a page three story about a drug-related death, Cinque quickly learns that truth is only a five-lettered word–so is death.

The Garvey Protocol is a thriller unparalleled in contemporary literary offerings.  The tome requires the focus of the reader as seemingly unrelated characters and scenarios can serve as just found puzzles pieces, bringing illumination to the opaque understandings of the protagonist.  The action builds like a rollercoaster ascending toward its first drop with twists and turns of revelations requiring the reader’s mind to grip-tight as all that is know is challenged.  The Garvey Protocol burns down the veil of how the sinister is acceptable, how the truth is denied, and how the innocent is a matter of definition.

Webb brings a fresh and undeniable urban-scholarly style to the presentation of his work.  There is such ease as he blends elements of Tom Clancy with the poetic flow of Langston Hughes.  His transitions from the poorest neighborhoods of Pittsburgh to the complexities of a backroom tactical commission are as smooth as a new ride cruising down I-95.  Fiction is accepted as fact when brought together in an unceasing expressway of deceit, deception, mayhem, lust, and necessitated justifications.  The Garvey Protocol is dynamic; its intensity is only matched by its intellect.

The Garvey Protocol: Inspired by true events-a novel is the latest entry by Eric Christopher Webb.  His other works include Coming of Age: The waking of Sleeping Giants, The Recipe for Revolution, and the National Black Author’s Tour bestseller, Love Letters, Death Threats, & Suicide Notes: New and Selected Poems and Essays.

Check out the book trailer.

To secure your copy of The Garvey Protocol (before it’s banned), visit here

Guy A. Sims is the author of the novel, Living Just A Little, and the crime novella, The Cold Hard Cases of Duke Denim.  He is also the head writer of the Brotherman: Dictator of Discipline comic book series and the forthcoming Brotherman graphic novel, Revelation.  BCEPressworks.com