Tag: example

As Father’s Day approaches, many of us take time to contemplate just how powerful the paternal influence can be. For good or for ill, the lessons fathers teach impact their children for the rest of their lives. My own father was not only a great dad, but his unmatchable fortitude taught me how to overcome incredible odds and survive my own devastating illness.

Six years ago, I was diagnosed with the gene for Huntington’s disease, a hereditary illness that presents like a combination of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and schizophrenia combined. John Mattinson, my father, who also has HD, has been diagnosed for 25 years, but also had symptoms for many years prior.

By the early ’80s, when I was in high school, divorce was so prevalent in my community that I’d ask new acquaintances, "Which parent do you live with?" The first great American wave of divorce that began in the ‘70s has now become as common as a high tide. A recent statistic shows that, in the U.S., 43 percent of first marriages end within 15 years. And, according to a 1998 University of Chicago national survey, nuclear families—which are married couples with children—make up only 26 percent of households, down from 45 percent in 1972.

Many of my contemporaries truly did not know what a good marriage was, though a bunch of us benefited from seeing good second marriages (showing that some parents learned from their mistakes).