There is a lot of pride at stake when a father and a son talk. There is a lot to be won and lost. The son wishes for the father to be proud and to recognise him as a person; strong and independent in his own right. The father wants the love and respect of the son, and gratitude for the life he gave and the sacrifices he made. There is a lot to be one and a lot to be lost.
There is awareness to family too. You know each other well. You have seen one another's best and worst; all those close moments. You know what one another hold dear. This works in two ways.
If a stranger insults you it washes off. Who are they? They dont know you. An insult from a father or son cuts deeper; when it comes from as close as can be, an insult stings far more. And as the insult is thrown, someone you love becomes insulted, so the knife bounces back and chips away at you.
But by that same token a compliment matters so much; the pide in a fathers eyes watching his son grow into a man, or the idoltry of a son who sees that his dad is also a man who has already made and has learned from the mistakes he has yet to make. Both slowly recognising what it is to be related; to share even hair and a smile, a sense of humor, a metabolism, a taste in music. Realising that the one was quite literally made from the other, and that there is almost no one closer in the world who was made so similar.
When a father and a son talk there is a lot of pride at stake. Pride is how you judge yourself, and they're a part of you.
