Paul Harvey's Tribute to Dad

Paul Harvey's famous essay,"What are Fathers Made of?" is always best when you can hear the author's oration, but in case you missed it on his Saturday broadcast, here 'tis:

A father is a person that is forced to endure childbirth without an anesthetic
A father is a person that growls when he feels good...and laughs out loud when scared half to death
A father never feels worthy of the worship in a child's eyes.
He's never quite the hero his daughter thinks...never quite the man his son believes him to be...and this worries him
So he works too hard to try and smooth the rough places in the road for those of his own who will follow him
A father is a person who gets angry when the first school grades aren't as good as he thinks they should be
He scolds his son...though he knows it's the teacher's fault
Fathers are persons that give daughters away to other men who aren't nearly good enough...
so they can have grandchildren who are smarter than anybody's
Fathers make bets with insurance companies about who'll live the longest
One day they lose...and the bet's paid off to the part of them they leave behind
I don't know where a father goes when he dies
But I've an idea that after a good rest...
he won't just sit on a cloud and wait for the girl he loved and the children she bore
He'll be busy there, too...repairing the stairs...oiling the gates...improving the streets...smoothing the way."