BONUS ISSUE: Happy Father's Day Edd Bailey!

A quick series of panels and a note about my dad.

Perhaps my favorite memory of my dad is when, in first or second grade, he taught me long division and made me handwritten worksheets on graph paper with his felt tipped pens. I delighted in his all-caps writing style and later made it my own. Basic math problems, numbered and spaced neatly across the page which he’d attach to a clipboard and hand to me. I’d lay in bed, awake after bedtime, with pencil in hand, trying my best to solve and show my work. Inevitably, some of the problems were just out of my grasp. Those problems I’d take back to him for review. And I only just today remembered this but his method of teaching was to test my understanding of the necessary steps by questioning me at each stage of problem solving. He wouldn’t give me the answers, instead he’d wait for me to try. I remember how my voice would shake, and I’d laugh nervously, often simply hazarding my best guess, and sometimes I’d get it right. When I think back to those moments, I was afraid, like most kids, to make a mistake, but through his patience, he showed me that mistakes were part of the process.

Through untreated alcoholism and drug addiction, I hit rock bottom at the age of thirty seven. I’d pushed all my relationships to the absolute brink, not in the least my relationship with my dad. For decades I’d treated him as a source of financial aid, or quick attempts at gaining his approval through material achievements. I thought of him very little except when I wanted someone to blame for my own mistakes. When my life was on the line and I needed his help to stay in treatment, he took the call and he gave me his support despite my absences. What’s more is he allowed me to start building on that experience, reestablishing healthy communication with each other, he even paid special attention to some of my emotional needs and changed some habits for me too.

Now we talk at least once a week and I’m so grateful to be current with he and my stepmom. Also, he made himself a “founding member” of this Substack page which means he’s in the group with the rest of you “paid subscribers” who help create time for me to make these issues that are so fun and fulfilling. So this Father’s Day feels special and that’s why I’ve done the bonus “issue”. My dad, Edd Bailey is an avid birdwatcher who rides fifty miles on his bicycle three times a week. He also grew up a Cardinals fan, (before our Kansas City days) so the imagery in the above piece, while universally themed, contains symbols meant specifically as an ode to him.

Thanks to all of you for continuing to open these notifications and read these blurbs, and Thank you Dad for suiting up, showing up, and teaching me how to get through long division.

Special thanks also has to go out to my mom, Lisa Ann Bailey, her wife Vonda Consani, and my Dad’s wife Nancy Baldwin, who all deserve their own posts for their generosity, influence, and support.

Sincerely

Damon B