I was walking out of court this morning when I passed approximately 10 high school students coming out of a small convenience store. There were roughly five boys and five girls in the group, and they appeared to be around 14-15 years old. I didn’t really notice or pay much attention to the group except that I noticed one of the girls had a large bag of Cheetos; the bright orange bag stood out to me. As I continued to pass the group, I noticed that every single one of the girls had Cheetos. They all had the same size bag of Cheetos; the big bag, not the smaller individual bags. And they all had their bags open, eating their Cheetos. [Read more…] about What Men Can Learn from Teenage Girls
High School Guy
I had a blast in high school. I really did. I played sports and made plenty of friends. Those were great years, and I will treasure them for the rest of my life. In fact, I count several friends from high school as among my closest. I’m grateful for those friendships and those high school years, and look forward to our 25th reunion next summer. But the reason that those years are great is that they are only one small part of the journey. I moved on from them. I went to college. I got married. I became a teacher, then went to law school. I’m still a practicing attorney with fantastic clients. Along the way, I had four kids. High school is but a distant memory. My accomplishments during those years are just rungs on the ladder of life. [Read more…] about High School Guy
Creating Special
Creating special in the lives of our kids is critical to fatherhood. To that end, I took my daughter on our first outing of 2017 this past Saturday. I try to follow the rules that Jim Sheils uses about Family Board Meetings (link here). Every 90 days, do a fun one-on-one activity with each child with the following rules: (1) your child picks the activity, (2) at least four hours, (3) no electronics, and (4) have some time to talk at the end. I committed to doing these with my kids in 2017, and my daughter won the drawing to go first. [Read more…] about Creating Special
Some Thoughts on the Women’s March
I’m big on the First Amendment. I’m big on people being free to voice their opinion, to make their voice heard, to add to the marketplace of ideas. And that makes me supportive of those who protest. Let’s put our ideas out there and may the best ones win. Let no one be silenced before they’ve had their say.
As a result, I have no problem with the Women’s March generally. If women, or any group, has something to say, and they want to join collectively to say it in a peaceful way, go for it. But supporting the right to express opinions doesn’t mean that the opinions expressed should be free from criticism. Just the opposite, actually. If you enter the fray, expect to face opposition – that’s just how it works.
And I have some criticisms of some opinions that bubbled up in the Women’s March.
I Want More
Our world does not value masculinity. It does not value the things that are unique to men like it did in the past. Strength. Courage. Productivity. Honor. Our world wants men to be tame. To be kind. To be compassionate. To pay for the sins of ages past. As a result, many of us went into hiding. We kept our mouths shut. We were polite. We were kind. We didn’t stir the waters or rock the boat. But we felt like cowards. My brothers, that’s not a man’s life. [Read more…] about I Want More