my sons are incredible fathers

fatherhood

every baby deserves parents

who devote the best of themselves

to that exhausting trial-and-error perseverance called

parenting,

I am regularly in awe of the mother,

within whom the baby is conceived

and through whom the baby comes out into the world,

as substance finding form from her love and care,

I can be in awe of the father

when he commits himself to the care of baby and mother,

when he makes the effort to know the little one

and be there for both physical and holistic needs,

some of the mother can be hardwired toward the parenting,

since only the mother gives birth,

father can be distant, and the child can still be,

what I praise in fatherhood is the volition of the parenting,

there is the hardwiring of how we’re programmed

by the models of parent and culture,

overlaid with the software of our own impulses and choice,

and some degree of action and inaction comes into being,

my sons are incredible fathers

who overlay and override contrary impulses

so that each can unconditionally love,

and, more important, act on that love,

and, even more important, choose well in how to act,

when I watch each son be there, fully,

for each infant and growing child,

I am happy for how lucky the new one is

to have such care, support, and help

to become the best person possible,

that person inherent in the possibilities that opened

as each came into the world.

by Henry H. Walker

January 14, ’13