Είναι ένα καλύτερο άτομο από τον πατέρα σου –

Excerpt from Hector’s Prayer from the Iliad Book VI by Homer

The quote above states, “Be a better man than your father.” While I see this as a no brainer not many follow this advice. I have seen some men be horrible people even though their father (or step father) is a great guy. Then they are those that even without a strong male figure in their lives can go and become great men.

I really don’t have an either/or… I consider myself in the middle. While my father wasn’t around much as child or even now… (side note: I haven’t seen or heard from my father since I broke things off with Madeline last June). He did teach me a few things in life. I own crescent ratchet wrenches  because of him, but learned how to rebuild a transmission of a 1986 Jeep Cherokee in spite of him. I quote some of his spanish proverbs and parables but take a long long look at his down falls as person.

Maybe this is just a reminder, if I ever become a father, I shouldn’t be like my own. It’s not that I’m reluctant but sometimes you become your parents. Frankly, I don’t want to be like either of them. I say that my biggets fear is to have lived and not have a purpose. I am slowly starting to see that my second biggest fear is becoming my father. Not that he was horrible as father, just not good at the whole being a there for any of us. My older sister was mainly raised in boarding schools, I practically raised myself and my younger sister.

But I see this with a lot of men, my friends; they want to better than their fathers. Maybe one day, our kids will say the same about us. I think it should be the natural evolution of culture and society for the betterment of humanity.