Parenthood.
I'd like to think that one doesn't have to raise a child to live the human experience, but I'm not so sure that's true. I reached that conclusion when I thought back to when I was a kid. Before I had to deal with full personal responsibility or romantic love or any of that garbage. When I was that age, I remember thinking that life was going to be how it was for the rest of my life. I look at my life now, about fifteen years later, and laugh about how stupid I was to think that. Becoming a parent has to be similar. There are switches in your soul that can only be flipped once you're a mother or father. And there's nothing particularly wrong with that, but I'd at least like to flip those switches and see what happens.
So whatever we may think of Danny, we cannot deny this: that, like all parents, he knew things many of us don't, and he felt distinct flavors of emotion we never have. I'm often inclined to look down on him as I laugh, but in a sense it just doesn't seem appropriate.
Danny's approach to parenting was firm, but...actually, yeah, just firm. In spite of all the Tourette's Guy we've seen, and moreso because of it, we can gather that he did love his nameless son. Thankfully his son was clearly not really his son, because it's pretty hard to call throwing someone down the stairs "slapstick".
But despite his love for his son he doesn't put his child before himself, and I've always found that sort of parental mindset interesting. Are you really supposed to put your child's interests above your own? A part of me wants to say that anyone who isn't ready to do so shouldn't be a parent, but if that's true, what's the ultimate destination? People abandon or strip down their life aspirations to be parents. They have children who grow up, approach their own aspirations, and scrap them to have children. And so ad infinitum. It's a giant transmission that shifts up to larger and larger gears, never redlining. Well, Danny ground his gears to dust, and his car slowed to a stop, and he was fine with that.
As an aside, whoever played the part of the son is sorely underappreciated. The two seemed to reach a natural, unforced chemistry, and he got a lot across for someone who was probably never onscreen.
Did Danny's son appreciate him? Well, someone bought him that "WORLD'S GREATEST DAD" mug.
