"Sometimes even to live is an act of courage." Seneca. The Emperor Penguin father is one of the most courageous of animals in my book. He mates in the middle of the Antarctic winter, when the temperatures hover around −40 °F with winds gusting as much as 89 miles per hour. As soon as his mate lays their egg, she must leave to go feed, as the production of the egg has depleted all of her bodily reserves. She transfers the egg to the feet of the father and leaves for the long march to the sea. The father penguin settles the egg in a thick nest of warm feathers on his lower belly, all the while holding it off the ice. He cannot feed until after the egg has hatched. By then, he will have gone hungry for two months. If the mother has not returned by the time the egg hatches, the father will continue to protect his chick (which has only a light coat of down and would freeze in a very short while.) He feeds the chick on a regurgitated curd that is high in protein and fat. By the time the mother returns so that the father can march to the sea to feed, he will have fasted for 115 days and lost half his body weight. Those of you who saw the 2005 movie, "March of the Penguins" will have seen how the males huddle together in order to survive the Antarctic winter. . . . . Human fathers don't have to survive sub-zero termperatures in a hostile environment, but they make sacrifices every day for the protection and nurturance of their children. I want to pay tribute to them this Father's Day weekend, beginning with my own father. I also want to honor the father of my children. He once asked, when he was feeling low, if I thought the children appreciated what he did for them. I told him I wasn't sure they could appreciate it until they had children of their own. Now those sons do have children of their own and appreciate their dad more than they did when he was alive. Even some of my grandsons are now fathers. To them and to all who have joined the "march of the courageous fathers," I honor you.