Back to the future

"Sherman made the terrible discovery that men make about their fathers sooner or later . . . that the man before him was not an aging father but a boy, a boy much like himself, a boy who grew up and had a child of his own and, as best he could, out of a sense of duty and, perhaps love, adopted a role called Being a Father so that his child would have something mythical and infinitely important: a Protector, who would keep a lid on all the chaotic and catastrophic possibilities of life.” –Tom Wolfe, The Bonfire of the Vanities

My father would have been 96 three days ago, had he not died at the untimely age of 70. He is pictured here in the library where he worked as a trade unionist. I was thinking of him tonight as I took the self portrait on the  left.