Fathers and Daughters

Fathers be good to your daughters;
Daughters will love like you do.
Girls become lovers who turn into mothers,
So mothers be good to your daughters, too.

~ John Mayer

I meet some interesting people at work. Sometimes they’re funny, sometimes they break my heart. This time I sat down with an 18 year old girl. She was weeping, saying that she felt dirty and ruined, and that no one would ever marry her, and that she would never be able to have children. "I have genital warts, and I don’t know where I got them from." Well, turns out that this girl has been involved sexually with so many partners that she could not count them, since the age of 13. Somewhere along the way she contracted this nasty, and incurable, disease. What can I say? It’s certainly not impossible that someone will someday want to marry her. I’ve known of women with similar backgrounds who’ve married, having plenty of children, but she’s certainly chosen a hard road. I guess what hit me the hardest was her tearfully telling me that she never remembers her father telling her that he loves her, and never recalls him holding or hugging her. When I asked her if this lack of affection from dad had anything to do with her "looking for love in all the wrong places," she just bawled and slobbered while she nodded her head. It would be wrong for me to make an attempt to remove her own guilt, but with this kind of stuff starting at age 13, one must wonder where dad was in her life.

Fathers, be good to your daughters.