So. It’s been a long, long time coming, but I finally made it back. I would like to thank the all-powerful and ever-merciful webmaster for taking my extenuating circumstances in to consideration and not banishing me from the official cast of gadflies. For those of you who don’t know about the extenuating circumstances, suffice it to say that Mrs. Erasmus, or Lady Folly as I like to call her, and I recently celebrated the birth of our own new little gadfly (technically I guess that would make the little one a gadmaggot—but that just doesn’t seem to convey the ol’ fatherly pride sufficiently).
Although despite the fact that I have not been overtly present here on the Gadfly, you should know that I never really left you. For example, remember that inflammatory friend of Horatius who conflated Obama’s penchant for socialism with an inordinate love for goats—or as we call it back home in Oklahoma mutton bustin’—THAT WAS ME! It should also be noted that this online conversation directly precipitated the first ever Gadcast. So you see, even when I’m not with you, I am with you. All that having been said, I guess I should get on with the whole point of this post, and as it was fatherhood that took me away from you my adoring readers, I thought that the topic of fatherhood should be what brings me back today.
Like most great institutions in this world, fatherhood has recently been getting the shaft in no uncertain terms. Fathers are often thought of as over-grown teenagers who are too busy with their own lives to contribute to their family. And hey, I have to admit when I hear about the number of single moms in this country (10 million by the way), the rate of divorce (50% of all first marriages according to some sources), and the number of kids in jails without dads in their lives (somewhere around 80%), it starts to appear as if that picture of the worthless father is unfortunately much too true to life.
But just because some dads are worthless doesn’t mean that the institution is useless, although what with lesbian couples adopting kids and single, professional women deciding the most they need from a man is a “little donation” it sure seems that some people think that a dad isn’t a necessity. Us dads obviously fill a much needed place in this society whether the society acknowledges it or not. Now rather than drum on and on about how important dads are to the community on the whole, a fact that most of you–that is my adoring public–undoubtedly already know, I figured I would drum on and on about how dads are important to … well … dads. For example, someone once told me that the best way to become a prudent, concerned, involved citizen in a society is to be a parent. Suddenly things like crime rates, school board elections, heck even presidential elections become important all of a sudden. Before your kid, you were a completely autonomous individual; you didn’t need anyone and no body needed you. But now you have someone that completely relies on you … FOR EVERYTHING. So now its your job to take care of EVERYTHING. But to call it a job is to give the wrong connotations, just like referring to picking up a bouquet a flowers and bottle of wine for the missus back home on your way from work (which, by the way, is an easy way to bring about this whole issue of fatherhood reeeeeeaaal quickly) as a chore distorts the whole thing. You want to do these things because your family is your world. So you change, become a new man, and take on the world for your family. Now just what kind of society do you think we would have if everyman recognized the eminent importance of all of his actions, that his decisions had an impact, not just on himself, but those who relied upon him? It may sound corny, but in my experience virtues like leadership, responsibility, and accountability are all learned first in your child’s nursery before they are put in to practice in your office, your court room, or your battlefield. No wonder it says in the good book, “Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. He will not be put to shame when he contends with his enemies in the gate.”
Categories: Culture, Culture of Life, Traditions
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