hardware and software

Fatherhood

as a father, I am in awe of the mother

and of her primal drive to bring forth and nurture the child

who needs her help to thrive,

as a father, I love the child, too,

yet nature seems to allow me

to walk away from the decades work

of helping the child to raise itself,

those who argue for the selfish gene

imagine that passing on genetics

is the be-all, the end-all,

as a father, I beg to disagree,

for life is more than existence:

evolution needs more than the body,

it needs the soul,

and both parents can choose and intend to the best,

I love for my children to exist,

and, even more, I love to have helped them thrive,

the finest qualities of one’s nature

are just as much the stuff of evolution as the gene,

the software as the hardware.

by Henry H. Walker

May 15, ’14