Just to second Jonah’s emotion (literally, too): Happy Father’s Day. Your fatherhood is a beautiful gift in our world.

Thank you to every man who protects and loves and guides. Some of you reading may not have children of your own, but with generosity of spirit and love, you use those innate paternal desires and instincts for good in your lives and in the lives of some of those whom you encounter. I think, especially, too, of religious fathers and of teachers, and those whose professions include a fatherly mentoring and support.

I think, also, of WFB. I think of one e-mailer in particular who, in the wake of Bill’s death, said that WFB on Firing Line was the father figure in his life — a consistent, wise, reliable male presence whom he respected in his life as a child and teenager. I think of Bill and his own son and the countless people who have told me that through Christopher’s book —with its candor about human frailties — they have come to appreciate the whole WFB more, that the public WFB is all the more accessible to them because they have some confirmation he was human!

Happy Father’s Day. Your love bears fruit. And we’re all the better for your embrace.