This was deja vu all over again for me, because I'd just heard this yesterday while catching up on old (long) Starship Sofa (Episode 234, if you're interested).
This story ripped my heart out, because I recently lost my SO (like, Sunday), and I almost stopped listening, but I'm glad I continued. Yes, Dad is a bit of a jerk, but of course that makes his coming around that much more moving. And while this is a problem - parents' expectations of and disagreements with their children's choices - is as old as the hills (the story of the prodigal son, and I believe there are hieroglyphics about it), I think the father's argument is not entirely without merit.
At what point are you no longer human? Resnick argues that appearances aren't as important as the "heart", and I agree, but perhaps there is some ne plus ultra line. If Phillip had NOT been so concerned about his mother, I think that line would be crossed, but of course that's the point of the story.
This also gives me a rare opportunity to make a head-to-head comparison of two readings of the same story. I'm not going to be mired in some dumb argument over which is "better" (I don't much care for superlatives, or sometimes even comparatives), but I will say that the Starship Sofa narrator, Matthew Stephens, while also reading in something of a drawl, was even slower and if more possible more heartbreaking. I did like Stephens' voicing of Julia more. But EP has the sound effects for Phillip's voice, which was nice.
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