Every Saturday, we’ll be posting a new illustration by David Lester. The Mecca Normal guitarist is visually documenting people, places and events from his band’s 28-year run, with text by vocalist Jean Smith.
“Put it on the back of the top shelf,” my mother said. “Don’t torture yourself.”
I thought maybe she meant my problems with my job, earning a living. Later I wondered if she meant my father. What I can’t get from him, the thing a daughter needs from her father. A morsel of validation. And when I am at my best, I don’t bother seeking it. But because I was rattled, involved in so many projects, I told him about them: “I give a lecture in university classrooms, can you imagine that, Dad?” And, I admit, I wanted him say, “My my.” Or something; something other than the emotional shrug that felt like, “Why would I be interested in what you are doing?
This is not essentially malicious on his part. It is how he is. How his brain works. How he developed as a child, for whatever reason. He has great qualities, but as his daughter, it is not so great, has not been so great, as it turns out.
