Life lessons from a Dad
Sometimes I amaze myself and I don’t always understand why. When I look at a problem and come up with a solution that I know many men my age would never have attempted, I sometimes stand back amazed at how I arrived at this idea. Then I remember…
I’m a man. I’m a father and more importantly, I’m a Dad. I’m also a son and of course, I’m also a husband. These roles help define who I am, but at least one of them helped to make me the man and the father that I am today. I am the son of a man who taught me what it means to be a man, not just in gender, but in the manner in which I live my life.
When I was just a wee lad around a year old, my father wrote me a letter which my Mom read to me for the first time when was a young teenager. Nearly 56 years later, I still have that letter and the words still resonate deep within my soul. One particular phrase rises to the top each time I begin to think about my Dad and that letter. He wrote, “You should be so strong and stand so tall that you can look any man in the eye and tell him to go to hell.” Years later I still know exactly what he meant. Notice I didn’t use an exclamation point after the word “hell”. It’s not about fighting, yelling, and swearing. Those are not the signs of a true man. A man can project confidence and look you square in the eye and tell you how it is going to be. Period. A man will also listen to your perspective, take it into consideration, and move on from there. A man is his own being. He bases his work and his decisions on what is best for his family, not what is best for himself. He doesn’t direct, he teaches. He doesn’t denigrate, he encourages.
So, as I stand here contemplating my latest invention derived from good ‘ol Yankee ingenuity, I remember all that my Dad has taught me through the years. I’m willing and able to tackle projects that are new to me simply because I was taught to try and not be afraid. When we try, we learn. When we learn, we gain experience. Through experience, we become better men.
Join me as I share the lessons from my Dad and the lessons I’ve passed down to my son. It is my hope that you will find yourself willing to become a better man and father along the way.
