Today is Father's Day in America, the complement to the older Mother's Day--a time to acknowledge the fathers, dads, stepfathers, grandfathers, and father figures in our lives. The motivating force in the organization of the first Father's Day (1910) is attributed to Sonora Smart Dodd in Spokane, who was raised by a widower with 14 children. It's easy to see why she saw the need to expand the idea of parental honor beyond Mother! Out of her experience, Father's Day recognizes such "fatherly" qualities as strength, guidance and provision of sustenance, shelter and protection. With our modern capacity to explore many different points of view from history and varying cultures across the globe, our sense of father can expand beyond our personal experience with our own fathers. This capacity is really a form of education that moves us beyond the process of growing up and childhood exposure to different kinds of family systems and different 'father' personalities from our own neighborhood and extended family circle. For those who are raised in Christianity, the idea of Father takes on the added dimension of God as the Heavenly Father. The implications and meaning of a Father God tend to be colored, at least subconsciously, by our own family experience. This is all to show the possibility of the wide range of ideas about fathers and what it means to be a father, let alone a 'good' father.
Still human nature tends to be heuristic, that is we simplify what seems too complex (and often emotionally challenging), in order to make our judgements and choices manageable for us. We create 'rules of thumb', short cuts in our thinking and decision-making process. This means we boil down the complexity of what kind of father, or man, is to be honored and in what way, to simplistic, manageable ideas. Our personal and/or collective ideas become the archetypal father.
Our archetypal judgement is usually interwoven with what is seen as a universal concept, but few people really take the time to sort through their personal layers, to have a realistic view of the bias they carry. Psychotherapist Carl Jung, theorized that archetypes are linked to primordial images and patterns found throughout literature and across cultures, creating a sense that these are indeed universal concepts, or even universal truths. But my post today is centered on your self-reflection and your truth. This Sunday offers an opportunity to step outside your rehearsed assumptions and familiar reflections, and instead turn to interior listening.
The 21st century presents us with ideas beyond our usual heuristics. We all carry (male and female) aspects within ourselves that rise to the archetypal Father role, as well as the Mother archetype. Are those roles really limited in the ways the short cuts suggest? Enter into Father's Day (or not) in whatever way you are socially inclined. But also take the time to discover the richer texture of your own inner life, the way you personally offer strength and guidance, the ways you sustain and protect life around you, beyond the scope of Father's Day. You too have fathered life. (Susan Nettleton)
For poems on Fatherhood follow the links: https://world.350.org/.../The-Peace-of-Wild-Things-by...