Fatherhood

There can be no greater title held by a man, than that of “father.” No title challenges the plains of human existence, than the heraldry of being a patriarch. To be bestowed this unsown, silent oath of allegiance and vigilance, is to assume one’s innate responsibility of pride all men bear, but few identify. In the assumption of title, only the strongest willed of our men can triumph.

I do not make these statements to pit men against women, for the tolls paid by each sex are their own. I write this to exude a prominence of social faith and continuity, a conduit of motivation. For it is in the assumption of such an honorable title, that our neighborhoods, communities and societies prosper. This title is not a burden; it is a conscientiousness of reward and merit. It is a cry for leadership and governance. To deny this role and reject its auspices is to infer cowardice. How empty must one feel to abandon such a test of fate, without the benefit of trying? One must wander aimless after having tasted the divine elixir of Fatherhood and not understanding its strength, its addictions, its reward. Woe to those shallow ghosts of men, woe with a pity unrepentant.

For proof of the grandeur of fatherhood, one need only gaze into the eyes of a newborn, whose understanding still bears the innocent dilation of whiteness. A child’s eyes are not yet corroded by the disparity of failure; a father steadies the inevitable. A child’s eyes are not stained and reddened by the tears of discontent, for a father buffers this experience. A child’s eyes are eyes of bewilderment, desperately waiting for a world to be explained by one that understands that he himself is still a student. The words of a father to a child are law and as impressionable as nature itself, for a child’s eyes are subjective to influence – a father’s influence.

The importance of this title can only be weighed against the importance of a culture and that culture’s foundation. The salvation of a culture lays not in its economy, its military or its political philosophy. Salvation is very simplistic in value and nature. A society’s salvation is an uncomplicated phenomenon of humility and perseverance, so fragile that to doubt its veracity in the least will forever spiral the procurement of fatherhood’s task into the abyss. Heavy is the head that bears the crown. For to a child’s eyes, the bearer of that crown shimmers with an aura and radiance that remains undiminished. To that child, the crowned can never be dethroned or usurped, except by the bearer. Self-doubt always threatens the crown bearer. The decadence, which follows doubt, can only be resolved through the taxing of one’s self to excel, to push when one can no longer pull.

The wise man realizes that “daddy” is an inheritance (for it needs no other action, than that of procreation) while “father” is a title earned. The title of father standardizes and obligates one’s self to seek buoyancy in an otherwise sinking pool of despair and strife. It marginalizes itself so that completion is never an option while that child exists. The title of father is spanning, elongated, and eternal throughout his offspring’s life.

Fatherhood is regarded with such benediction that it is the zenith of Christian sacrament, forceful in its blessing of The Holy Trinity — The Father, The Son and Holy Ghost. The exchange of father and child is a spiritual union of protector, provider, healer, educator and priest. To come unto prosperity, the title of fatherhood demands that all past sins and trespasses be forgiven, in order to focus on the future, a new starting point – the raising of a child. To dwell on what has become past behavior or incidents hinders this sacred process and sucks away his pride.

And oh what glowing countenance flushes the cheeks and expands the chest of a proud father! Oh, what swelling of pride surges and courses the smiling soul of a successful patriarch!

Father and daddy are of no kinship. The two can meet and agree to work together as one. However, a prosperous father denotes longevity and endurance, whilst being a daddy can be episodic and occasional — one being the product of genetics, while the other is the product of dedication. To be bestowed with the prominence of fatherhood is contiguous to the elevation of divinity. For, a father’s persona shall be remembered and span the ages as a proud inspirational example for fathers to be. Yes, there is no greater title than Father. Nor should there be.