HAPPY FATHERS DAY...

OUR FATHERS --LOVE THEM OR HATE THEM THEY HAD A SUBTLE OR NOT SO SUBTLE IMPACT ON OUR LIVES..TELL US HOW YOUR FATHER IMPACTED YOUR LIFE....................

The following is from an MSN interveiw about the late great Johnny Cash, from his son:  I found it a fascinating insight into the mind and heart of the MAN IN BLACK

My father wasn't the perfect ideal of a father, there's no doubt. He struggled. He dealt with addiction throughout his life. But the good in him triumphed. I learned at a very early age that it was of the utmost importance to show honor to your father. It wasn't just something that he told me or taught me by disciplinary measures. It was something that I saw my father display to his parents. I never saw him disrespect my grandfather, even though he may have disagreed with him.

My father liked to enjoy his money. He loved his travels and his toys, and he was more on spending than he was on saving. However, he knew very well that money cannot bring happiness. He knew that it was not a path to peace. It was just a by-product of hard work. It wasn't something he worried about much, that's true. He and my mother spent it like there was always going to be more coming!

He taught me that it's not about the destination, it's about the journey. It's about finding the next right thing. What am I excited about now? My father was a spiritual man, and he read the Bible a lot. And I remember him reciting Solomon, who said that there's no greater joy than to toil at our labor. That's what success was to my dad, to always have something to look forward to, to feel that sense of urgency.

He had a Christian view of marriage. Your wife is to be cherished and taken care of. We are to love and appreciate our wives as we care for our own spirits. He struggled in his marriages, but he also had that sense of determination: I'm going to stick to it. He believed that no matter what, you stay together, you work it out. I saw him do that regularly with my mother, forgive as his religion taught him to, as far as from east to west, as if the wrong had never been done.

He stayed in touch with the mystery. My father often said, "I believe that I am directed." He showed me that there was an excitement and a sense of mystery to life. What is my direction? What does God have planned for me? We can never believe that we have it all figured out.

Honesty surpasses dignity. He was able to show his weaknesses and frailties and not lose his dignity. He was honest, and I believe that honesty has to surpass concern for your personal dignity. You have to expose yourself to be appreciated and respected. My father in lots of ways was like Job in the Bible. He prayed many times for his physical or spiritual pain to be removed. But he never cursed God because of those pains. He owned them.

He said to love as strong and hard as you can. At the end of his life, he was sad. He felt loneliness because he was without my mother. What he was trying to relate to me when he said this was "Let people know you love them. Get close. Stay close. And be true. Live life to its fullest, as if each day were the last." I saw him live that way, and I believe that he didn't carry any regrets with him.

John Carter Cash, 38, is Johnny Cash's only son and the only child of his father's 35-year marriage to June Carter. John Carter worked closely with his father, coproducing three of his most highly regarded albums and laboring by his side through the degenerative illness that killed him in 2003. He has overseen his father's musical catalog since that time and produced for Billy Joe Shaver, Marty Stuart, and George Jones. He wrote his mother's biography, Anchored in Love