On Being A Man Part 2

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(If the last post proved to be read worthy, this one will too)

Dads Need to Step Up

Today, I'm blogging over at Ignitum Today.

Check it out.

Blessed Pope JPII, Curious George and Love

I need to take a break from blogging to finish up a book proposal I'm putting together. I'll talk more about the book at a later time. However, after experiencing a few unique moments with my children I couldn't stop this particular strand of thought from making it out of the insta-press that is blogging (or what I like to call "instant-printification"--actually Mark Shea has the best blog tag line along this theme).

I have always been the master of putting my children to sleep. No matter the age of the child, my presence and mad-daddy-skills brings calm and peace to my children, and upon a few minutes (or more than a few) of my firm yet delicate hand they are off in la-la-land. More than once, upon coming home from work only to find my wife searching for answers to a cranky child, I have deployed these skills which produce a secondary positive effect of a venerating spouse.

The other night while I was doing a very awkward dip and twist technique, trying to get my over-tired 6-month old beauty Gemma to bed, I had a realization about love. This epiphany was reinforced just two nights later as I sat in a rocking chair and--with a Thor-like aura--calmed my 2-1/2 year old son simply by being in the room. To keep myself occupied while he drifted away to dream about dinosaurs and candy, I grabbed the nearest book available and pretended to be as interested as possible. My take away: a refresher course on my A-B-C's under the tutelage of my childhood friend Curious George.

In both of these experiences I was reminded about the real meaning of love. Love is not about what we get. Love is about the other. Blessed Pope John Paul II in his teachings in Theology of the Body defined love as the "willed good of the other." I like this a lot. Love is not a feeling but a choice. Further, it is not a choice to get but rather to give and to give something in which you receive nothing in return.

As my precious daughter drifted away in my arms and my son snuggled into his sports themed blankie while I remembered that Zebra starts with Z, I was struck by how much I loved both of them so much. I could have cared less that my injured knee hurt or that I already knew Zebra started with Z, all that mattered is that they were loved. That is love.

Be back in a few days...