Fathers, I've read in child development books, bring the outside world to the young child. They are the "oh" of surprise, the gasp of delight. I think today of my own father, who traveled every week for work when I was young. Friday night we'd wait for the crunch of his tires on our gravel driveway. He brought with him a whiff of the faraway, of Columbus or Chicago or even, sometimes, New York.
When I first met Tom, he was just back from a student backpacking trip through Europe and he told me stories about living in England with his family for a year. He was (and is!) cosmopolitan!
Families thrive on a combination of the cozy and the wide-open. When kids (including grown kids) know they're loved, they're free to venture out into the world. The two most important men in my life have always done that for me.