Ben Stein’s column in the New York Times notes the impact of the smallest gestures of love (excerpt):
Now, I thought, the distance from Earth to the nearest of those stars is trillions of miles. Having been put on her father’s shoulders added an incalculably small fraction to Olivia’s closeness to the stars. But it made all the difference in the universe that she was standing on her father’s shoulders and she was being lifted up by his love for her.
That’s it, I thought. With our fathers lifting us up, we get encouragement, belief in ourselves, confidence that we can reach out and grab the stars for ourselves. Without our fathers lifting us, we are out in the yard in the dark.