Nostalgia

Dan Fogelberg ,the author of "The Leader of the Band", has just died from prostate cancer and I ran into a tribute to him on another blog. They had a video of Dan singing "The Leader of the Band" and as I listened to it I got nostalgic about my parents, especially my father. My dad died before I was 30 and as I grow into my "Golden Years" I find myself getting that catch in my throat when I hear or read something that refers to the writer's father. In fact, whenever I watch "To Kill a Mockingbird" and it comes to the part where the black parson says, "Stand up Miss Scout, your father, Atticus Finch is passing by", I almost bawl out loud. It is such a touching moment of respect for a father that it never fails to choke me up. I had the same feeling listening to Fogelberg's song, it is a great tribute to his own father. As I face my own mortality I realize that I probably didn't express my feelings to my dad as well as I could have. I have the same thoughts about my mother too, she died too young as well. Maybe those feelings are closer to the surface around Christmas, but they sneak up on me at other times as well.