Dad, that’s not fair!

So, there was this dad named Buck who had four children, all the same age: Elizabeth, Andy, Ricky, and Julie. It was obvious to everyone that the Buck favoured Elizabeth. He always talked kindly to her and would smile when she did just about anything. There were very few instances where she would ask for something that he didn’t give to her. It would normally be a sweet situation, but he was terrible to the other three. Especially Ricky. He would criticize and growl at them at the best of times. He would beat them and treat them cruelly at the worst of times. Not only did he never give them anything they asked for, he would give them the very minimum they needed to stay alive. While Elizabeth ate her favourite meals at the table with plate, fork, knife, and cup, her siblings were given a napkin and toast and sent to their room. They shared a room. Elizabeth had her own. Surely things were not equal, and it was dreadful.

The brothers would voice their complaints about this, but Julie wished they would just keep quiet so as to not upset her father.

Thankfully, a year later the dad realized things weren’t very fair, so he tried to change. He stopped the beatings, but once in a while when he was angry enough he would hit one of them. It was usually Ricky, but sometimes Julie or Andy. Those three were also given the same meals as Elizabeth, but they couldn’t have seconds like she could. And they still had to go to their room to eat, but they were given paper plates now. They each had a toy now too. Elizabeth still had her overflowing toy box, which seemed wrong, but at least they had one.

A year later, one of the children’s aunts was visiting and voiced her own concerns. “You have to treat them the same, Buck. Look at these movies and video games you have in the living room. All of them are ones that Elizabeth either picked out or got as a gift.”

“That’s not true!” Buck protested. He quickly bent over and yanked out Mario Kart. “I got this for the four of them at Christmas. I even have four controllers so they can play together.” The truth was, he broke one of the controllers one day when he was angry at Ricky, so the three of them had to take turns playing with Elizabeth.

“No, Buck. That’s not enough,” his sister admonished him. “You also need to get their school pictures up on the mantle like Elizabeth’s.” This seemed unreasonable to Buck. Just because her pictures were up didn’t mean that he didn’t love them all equally. He had a story for each one explaining why each child’s picture wasn’t there. Was she, and his kids, forgetting just how much things were different now?

But that next year he tried his best. The pictures were up. They were 3”x5”’s and Elizabeth’s was still an 8”x10”, but equal nonetheless. He still had just only Elizabeth’s picture on the dash of his car, but it seemed silly to him when Andy pointed this out to his father, saying that it showed his favouritism. Even Julie was getting bolder. One night while struggling with homework she blurted out that he gets short tempered with her but is always patient and understanding with Elizabeth. She also didn’t like that Elizabeth got to stay up a half hour later than the other three. ”And why is she given vitamins in the morning while we don’t?”

Buck couldn’t believe his ears. He had changed so much for them. How could they still think things aren’t fair. He’d worked so hard, and they just keep bringing up the past and getting emotional about things that seem so small and petty. Buck never could understand it until the day his best friend said to him, “Honestly Buck, I don’t think any of those things are petty. But even if they were, it wouldn’t change the fact that things aren’t exactly equal in your house.”

His friend was a math teacher, and he reminded Buck that the equals symbol (=) can only be used when the numbers are the same. You add the smallest of fractions and the symbol gets changed to “greater than” or “less than”  (>, <). “You’ve grown a lot,” he told Buck, “And maybe it’s been tiring, but it’s your kids! That makes the work worth it, don’t you think?”

Buck had to really think about this. He had to ponder it not only with his brain, but with his heart as well. I wonder what he’ll do.

Congratulations . This is your week.

There are no actors, so let’s go with this…

Best female subject: Ruth Bader Ginsburg in

A strong second place is Nina Simone.

Best male subject: Muhammad Ali in

Best group subject: Sly and the Family Stone in Summer of Soul

Best quote: “Bad, fast! Fast! Fast! Last night I cut the light off in my bedroom, hit the switch and was in the bed before the room was dark.” – Muhammad Ali in

There are many documentaries that I’ve seen and loved, but only seven I’ve rated 5 stars. And here they are, ranked:

1. Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom (2015)

2. Flee (2021)

3. Three Identical Strangers (2018)

4. Mr. Dress-Up: The Magic of Make Believe (2023)

5. 13th (2016)

6. To Kill a Tiger (2023)

7. The Act of Killing (2012)