by Christine Smitha | Here are some tips and ideas for anyone needing a little inspiration in the ‘thanking Dad’ department.

While everyone has heard of King Midas’s avarice and his desire for The Golden Touch that transforms everything he touches into gold, not everyone has heard of The Leaden Touch. In Hawthorne’s A Wonder Book one of the children who hears of the famous story about King Midas, remarks, “But some people have what we may call ‘The Leaden Touch,’ and make everything dull and heavy that they lay their fingers upon.”

When a person complains, his creative abilities break free. But it’s also proof to me that we fallen humans don’t commend people well; we don’t thank them enough; and we pat each other on the back far too little.

I spent the first weekend in June at the one-day Immaculate Heart of Mary Conference in Lafayette, Louisiana. It’s one of my favorite places on earth, and the enthusiasm of ...