What do I know?

I loved television shows like Leave it to Beaver where the father figure loomed large and provided guidance to the children without any abuse. There is an abundance of writing about father and son relationships - good and bad. One example of a quote about father and son relationships that incorporates literary allusions is the poem "Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden: Sundays too my father got up early and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold, then with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather made banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him. I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking. When the rooms were warm, he’d call, and slowly I would rise and dress, fearing the chronic angers of that house, Speaking indifferently to him, who had driven out the cold and polished my good shoes as well. What did I know, what did I know of love’s austere and lonely offices? It explores the complex relationship between a father and son. On the one hand, the father is portrayed as a hardworking provider who sacrifices his own comfort to take care of the family. Conversely, the son is depicted as distant and unappreciative, unable to fully understand or express himself. My favorite line is "love's austere and lonely offices" where a father's love (or any parent) is seen as a duty or a job and often not fully appreciated. My father chose to ignore the duties of his job most of the time, but he showed up just enough to keep my hopes up. He never got up early on Sundays as the poem says, he was usually partying into the wee hours of the morning. I try or have tried to put myself in his shoes as the poem says "What did I know, what did I know" as I never really knew what made him tick or what dreams were forfeited for the family before he forfeited the family.