Cannon-shooter Wannabe - Shooting Dad

I’ve never had much to relate to with my father. He’s an engineer. I’m an artist. As a full-time worker supporting a family of 7, he works long hours throughout the entirety of the day. Our relationship is quite silent and very awkward at times. I often find our interaction relatable to the limited relationship of Brad Manning and his father. I look more forward to a relationship with my father like that of Sarah Vowell’s. Reading Shooting Dad makes me long to talk to my father, even if it is just petty talk like political arguments. I’ve had a few times where I’ve “shot the cannon” with my dad. It’s when we talk and laugh, almost like friends. It’s at those times that despite the generation gap, my dad can still be like me. Or rather, I can be like him. I find that our generation is too boiled up in social media. Technology has created a larger space between parents and their children. I can most definitely see that I spend a significantly larger amount of time on the computer than talking with my father. At this rate, moving out into college will result in minimal contact with him, if any at all. I really hope to be able to be like Vowell in her last paragraph. I hope that when I let go of my dad, it will hurt. I hope I will miss him, that I will miss our interaction and relationship. I want to be able to love him.