Happy Father’s Day!

Photo of my father, wandering the village of his grandfather

Thinking About Fathers by Katheryn Laible

Happy Father's Day!

Here is a photo of my own father, wandering through the village of his grandfather, telling stories about him, the mother he raised, his own father, and his father…

I am grateful for him, for them, for my sweet husband, and for all who give it their best to be good men and serve as fathers. It means more than I can say….Thank you!

Brief History

While inspired by its advent, Father’s Day wasn’t formalized until several decades after Mother’s Day. Apparently, it met resistance from dads who found the idea unmanly. Like Mother’s Day’s own founder, many moreover objected to the commercialization of the whole thing. Still, the sentiment runs deep and, in 1972, Richard Nixon finally signed a bill making it official. 

One poignant impetus for Father’s Day in the US was a memorial held in the wake of an awful mining disaster in Fairmont, West Virginia. More directly related to the celebration we know, was a campaign initiated by a woman named Sonora Smart Dodd. She was inspired by a sermon on Mother’s Day and the experience of her father, who raised her and her five siblings alone after their Mom passed in childbirth. Working with local religious leaders, in 1909 they dedicated June 19th (her father’s birthday month) to honoring all fathers. 

You can read about that and other fascinating bits in this Britannica entry, as well as in this History.com article, and in the Farmer’s Almanac.

A Few Resources

I love this collection of “The Best Quotes on Fatherhood” from The Art of Manliness…

Did you know there’s a National Fatherhood Initiative that since 1994 has been dedicated to helping communities and human service agencies foster fatherhood?

Another website, The National Center for Fathering, has been run by Drs. Ken and Michelle Watson Canfield since 1990, offering a wide array of resources and reflections designed to provide practical support to men who wish to be better fathers. 

 

Fatherly, produced by global media company BDG, seeks to “empower men to raise great kids and lead more fulfilling adult lives through original reporting, expert parenting advice, and hard-won insights.”

Thank You - For This Guy and Everyone Else Giving it Their Best

Personally, I am really, super grateful for all who step up to serve in a fathering role. This especially includes all those folks who for one reason or another end up wearing both mother and father hats, and those who are determined to be the fathers they wish they had.  

One sweet and broadly helpful example is this guy, Rob Kenney who hosts “Dad, how do I?” on YouTube. Kenny’s dedicated to doing his “best to provide useful, practical content to many basic tasks that everyone should know how to do.” He started out just trying to do it for his own kids, and now we all benefit.

There are so many guys like this, and so many others who give more of themselves than they knew they had to uplift and serve the next generations. Oh, the stories we could tell…Grateful to have witnessed some of them. It means more than we may realize. 

Grateful!

Happy New Year! Here Are Some Resources

Photo of sparkler with heart shaped core by Katheryn Laible

Photo “New Year’s Love” by Katheryn Laible

Happy New Year! We hope you’ve enjoyed a very Merry Christmas, that Hannukah was bright and that you take comfort in the Solstice knowing that — while winter is indeed upon us — the darkest days have already passed. Whatever you celebrate, may it be something good and bring you deep joy. Come what may, we wish you all the best. 

We thought you might appreciate the following:

Let’s start with this fascinating piece on the history of New Year’s and its traditions from History.com

Want to go to a ball drop without going to the THE Ball Drop? Going Local Long Island has a whole list of local celebrations, including midnight spectacles and several events featuring a very family-friendly 8pm ball drop!  (We of The Firefly were delighted, btw, to win their first ever Local’s Choice Awards for best gallery. Thank you to all who voted for us! Even, better — since we know just getting nominated means something special — we are thrilled they listed 2nd and third place winners for their awards as well. Support these local treasures!)

In addition to one last hurrah for the old year, it’s also a time for introspection and planning. Here are “7 Questions to Ask Yourself for a Happier New Year, written by Jancee Dunn for the New York Times. It draws from a number of folks prominent in the field of self help as well as her own dad. (mind the paywall – please support quality journalism if you value it. You may also find this article at your local library!)

The website for the Calm app also has a lovely list of reflections that leads into a thoughtful approach to gentle, and thus likely more effective, resolution making 

Here are some other tips on actually sticking to those resolutions. from a neuroscientist named Nicholas Wright writing for Time Magazine. It’s got a good bit to do with breaking things down into manageable bites and staying loose in the face of unexpected obstacles and new information.   

The Myth of Maintenance, by Dr. Jeff Reynolds of the Family and Children’s Association, offers a little tough love to spice up all the rest of this, centering on the idea that, even if we’d simply like to maintain, we’re best off doing so from a mindset of innovation, growth and being willing to push ourselves. 

This is true. It’s also true that we have to be patient with ourselves if we are ever going to overcome the myriad frustrations that come with trying to get our human selves to maintain, let alone achieve great aspirations. Here’s a little help from Yasmin Ruffo in the BBC on doing that, entitled “The two words to avoid when making your New Year’s resolution.”

It doesn’t have to be hard. Here are “65 Achievable New Year’s Resolutions” from Good Housekeeping. 

One of those suggestions is to volunteer more. Many of us are thinking about how we can help out more, and are still doing year-end giving! Here’s a list of JUST A FEW incredible local organizations that could use our support. Use it as a starter guide. We look forward to sharing many more in the New Year!

Let us know your year-end reflections and resources, and what you’d like to see focused on in 2026. Thanks!!!

A Note on Science

Photo of an Antique Quack Medical Device by Katheryn Laible

Please...

You know…I’m never going to say that scientists aren’t prone to dogmatism or corruption, nor that money doesn’t direct a lot of focus and strong will. Certainly, there are plenty of non-scientists frequently willing to pass stuff off as scientifically verified that is just not…or who take some grain of discovered knowledge and just…run wild…

However, there is a huge difference between that and scientific consensus based on careful application of the empirical method and honest assessment of lots of carefully gathered data.

The Word "Science" Means Something

Scientists know they are funny subjective humans by nature and that objective reality is a tough thing to grasp, even without that. The whole point for folks who are truly scientists is to give it their best to overcome those biases, think really hard about how we might actually know what we know, and then carefully catalogue and analyze that, while repeatedly double checking each other and themselves.

A lot of folks aren’t diregarded as quacks because no one wants to look at their truth, but because they’ve examined it carefully and what they see is hogwash.

They may not not know precisely what is, but they’re qualified to give the best guess we’ve got and can often tell for sure when something doesn’t prove what someone else is claiming it does.

Please Honor Expertise.

If we’re willing to actually sit there and listen (keeping in mind that these folks have studied their fields and methodology in general for years and it can be a little hard to follow sometimes), they might even be willing to try and explain how they’ve come to these carefully derived conclusions, and the chances they think this or that may be so.

Grateful when folks actually care about that. It makes a big difference. 

Happy Father’s Day!

Photo of my father, wandering the village of his grandfather

Thinking About Fathers by Katheryn Laible

Happy Father’s Day!

Here is a photo of my own father, wandering through the village of his grandfather, telling stories about him, the mother he raised, his own father, and his father…

I am grateful for him, for them, for my sweet husband, and for all who give it their best to be a good man and serve as a father. It means more than I can say….Thank you!

Apparently Father’s Day didn’t come about until quite a few decades after Mother’s Day. In fact, while in the US it was apparently initiated by a woman named Sonora Smart Dodd in 1909, whose dad raised her and her five siblings alone, it didn’t become an official national thing until 1972!

You can read about that and other fascinating bits in this Britannica entry, as well as in this History.com article.

I love this collection of “The Best Quotes on Fatherhood” from The Art of Manliness…

Did you know there’s a National Fatherhood Initiative dedicated to helping foster fatherhood?

I am also really, really grateful for all who step up to serve in a fathering role, This expecially includes all those folks who for one reason or another end up wearing both mother and father hats, and those who are determined to be the father they wish they had.

One sweet and broadly helpful example is this guy, Rob Kenney who hosts “Dad, how do I?” on YouTube. Kenny’s dedicated to doing his “best to provide useful, practical content to many basic tasks that everyone should know how to do.” He started out just trying to do it for his own kids, and now we all benefit.

Grateful!

April is Autism Awareness Month – Were you aware of Northport’s Mikey Brannigan?

April is Autism Awareness Month – Were you aware of Northport’s Mikey Brannigan? I sure wasn’t!!!

Photo of Mikey Brannigan and Sonja Robinson above provided by Fritz Garrecht

 

I like to think I’ve got a pretty good handle on the inspiring people of Long Island, especially in the Huntington area. I literally make it my business to know these things.

The best part about that? Realizing, no matter how hard I try, I will never begin to grasp it all.

First I learned "The Little Prince" was Written in Asharoken

For one. I was recently amazed to learn that “The Little Prince” (which I was blessed to be introduced to when a dear child handed it to me in grave seriousness many years ago), was written in Northport’s close neighbor, Asharoken. On one hand, given the gorgeous statue in the Northport-East Northport Library, I’m kind of surprised I didn’t learn earlier. However, on the other hand, given that the whole library there is an incredible, artistic ode to literature and more, I can see why I perhaps thought he was just one more aspect of that celebration.

BTW, they just celebrated the 80th birthday of that classic tale written by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry at the Northport Historical Society. I strongly recommend you check out all the other amazing things they have going on there!!!

Then I Learned About Mikey Brannigan - WOW!

The other gem – a “Pink Diamond” that was recently held up to sparkle at me is much more current. Frankly, my missing it surprises me even more: Mikey Brannigan.

Did you know that the first Paralympic athlete to ever break a 4-minute mile, and who has in fact run two miles in under nine minutes was born and raised in Northport? Yessir!

New York State record holder Mikey Brannigan graduated from Northport High School in 2015 a local hero and, despite the huge setback that was COVID, has great hopes for the future.

This Guy is Golden

Mikey’s been compared to Forrest Gump, but faster and perhaps even wiser despite having an IQ below 75. He has won the Paralympic Gold, broken three T-20 world records, was named the Sports Illustrated High School Athlete of the Month in 2015, and in 2017 he was named Team USA’s Male Paralympic Athlete of the Year.

He is charming, ever uplifting, and currently taking college-level public speaking classes and more in addition to his rigorous work schedule.

The Mikey Mile and More to Come...

There is movement to name the route he regularly took around Crab Meadow the “Mikey Mile,” and to reengage the Village of Northport – especially its young people — in this man’s remarkable story.

His coach and caretaker Sonja Robinson is a precious gem herself. She has been compared to Helen Keller’s Anne Sullivan. In this case though, it’s running rather than running water that she uses as her medium to reach Mikey, and to guide him in realizing his fantastic potential.

There is so much to talk about regarding them, about running, about coaching, about our society, about life as a special needs individual both in sports and academia … I’ve only just begun to scratch the surface, there is so much to learn! I look forward to sharing more…

…Soon…