Fathers
A response to Brian Doyle's essay "Two on Two":
Dear Mr. Doyle,
I really enjoyed your essay. Freshman year at BYU, I saw a Japanese film called Twilight Samurai, about a father dedicated to his family, giving everything so his two girls will have a mother and a future. Ever since, one of the themes I’ve been really fascinated with is fatherhood. It doesn’t seem like there are a lot of good examples of fatherhood out there. Unlike for women, there isn’t a lot of discussion in the world about what it means to be a man and how a man should relate to a family. As a recently married Mormon woman, I look at my husband and know that he has been raised—indoctrinated, really—to believe that a family and children will be the pinnacle of his life. He gets this not only from our religion but also from his father who teaches in the School of Family Life here at BYU. I look at these two men, my husband and my father-in-law, and compare them to the images I see of men in the media: anti-social gamers, the protagonists of shoot-em-up films, sports stars, high-powered corporate lawyers. When was the last time you saw a film about a man who was really comfortable with his family? And they say that women face the problem of a false media image? Thanks for writing about what’s real, the simple joy of life.
-Liz Busby
1 comment:
Dear Liz -- I am honored. Thanks. I guess I think that being a dad is the hardest and most important thing I am to do, but even as I shriek and throw gobs of graying hair on the floor and stomp and use bad language and wail and moan and drone and lecture and issue proclamation unto mind heirs, i am ever mindful of the fact that they are hilarious, holy, and brief -- they will all too soon be out there in the world buying motorcycles and studying Aramaic or whatever, so my view, sometimes, is that i am hugely graced. -- brian doyle
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