Dads Throughout History Series – Part 6
A little bit more about me…
In this six part series about fathers throughout history, I had wanted to provide profiles about heroic fathers. I wanted to examine fatherly archetypes such as Joseph, Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, Darwin, and Barack Obama. I had wanted to do all of this in the month of June to commemorate Father’s Day.
What I produced were disparate glimpses into the lives of Deepak Chopra, Anthony Bourdain, George Darling (think Peter Pan), and my very own great-great grandfather. I even crafted a post-Father’s Day quiz to lighten things up.
My June certainly needed lightening up. Call it the mid-year blues, an early summer slump, or just plain “dad-pression”: whatever the label, I was not myself. I had been on a work trip mid-month in a beautiful city when it hit me: I didn’t want to be around anyone. Not my family, my coworkers, no one. I described the feeling as being withdrawn, and I knew that wasn’t a good thing.
I’ve used this space to mediate about time, and how we as husbands and fathers spend it in this modern world of ours. What I noticed about the month of June, is that I was out of time, time for myself and time for the strategic recovery I so desperately needed. I noticed myself being ill-tempered with my sons, distant from my wife, and not fully engaged at work. It’s easy to play the “Blame Game” and say that life is just too busy to tend to myself, but man, oh man, is that so wrong. We MUST take care of our mind, body, and soul before anyone else’s; it’s just that simple. If we don’t make, ask for, or find the time, it will not magically appear.
The crazy cycles of work, family, and travel, mixed with the barrage of bad and sad news on the national and international front will never slow down. It’s up to all of us to pump the brakes. Often, it’s our very own brakes that need the pumping.
While I wanted to leave you, dear reader, with some kind of fatherly insight by drawing some connection to a famous man from history and how awesome he was and makes all of us look like chumps, I’ll only offer this: to be a Super Dad, take care of YOU. Self care is a critical investment. Deposit time daily.
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Photo by Ben White on Unsplash