For 50 years, the rock icon Bruce Springsteen has turned his struggle into songs, his unrest into performance. In his 2016 memoir, Springsteen tries to overcome the issues he had with his father. One of the book's most moving passages occurs a few days before the 1990 birth of Springsteen's first child, his son Evan. His father Doug Springsteen embarked on an impulsive, impromptu road trip, driving 400 miles south to Bruce's house in Los Angeles from San Mateo. Over beers at 11 A.M., Doug, uncharacteristically, made a small peace offering to his son. "Bruce, you've been very good to us," he said. And then, after a pause: "And I wasn't very good to you."

"That was it," Springsteen writes. "It was all that I needed, all that was necessary."

I asked him if he ever heard the words "I love you" from his father.

"No," he said, a little pained. "The best you could get was 'Love you, Pops.' [Switching to his father's gruff voice.] 'Eh, me, too.' Even after he had a stroke and he'd be crying, he'd still go, 'Me, too.' You'd hear his voice breaking up, but he couldn't get out the words."

Possible Preaching Angles: (1) Father's Day; Fatherhood; (2) Fatherhood of God; God, Fatherhood—We can be thankful that God the Father did "get the words out"—the words "I love you."