There is an extreme difficulty in expressing a father's love for his daughter.
Most words are trite. Too trite. Much of the sentiments that can be expressed in the English language are repetitious and dull, words put together one time too many in the annals of the language.
Some languages allow greater expression. Greek has four words -- philia, eros, storge, agape -- friendship, romance, familial, and divine. Even these fall short of a father's love, although each represents but a tiny portion of a father's love.
When your daughter climbs from your lap to slap the toggle for her toy, making the balls bounce and pop and froth, and she looks back with a joyful smile, sharing her joy with you, that is philia, the love of companions and friends.
When she softly strokes your cheek as she takes her last bottle, and your heart swells and skips, it is a purely romantic thrill that echoes through your heart. It is to eros as puppy love is -- pure, romantic, and thrilling.
Your devout vows of protection, whispered as she falls asleep in your arms or as you place a goodnight kiss on her forehead just before she's placed in her safe haven for the night are all manifestations of storge, the familial love traditionally considered of father to daughter.
At last, there is the divine -- the all encompassing, never ending, never quenched love. This is how God is supposed to love. It seems inadequate to have a word for such a depth of affection and aspiration for another being.
There are four Greek words for love, and they are not enough.
Not enough to convey the joyous feeling that tickles every bone when your daughter looks up at you with a messy, toothy smile, and offers you a crushed, sodden french fry, offering to share with you, her father, for the first time. And nothing can describe the sweet ambrosia that is that french fry as you lean down and let her put the sodden end between your lips so you can take a bite.
There are no words so great."
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