Periodically, I’ve thought of some fatherly advice that I would like to bestow upon Justin and Garrett. Until now, most of these thoughts have passed without action. Many of these ideas are lost because the boys are too young to understand (and I can never find a pen and paper when I really need one!) So, I am adding a new section to GenXDaddy.com where they can read them in the future. Welcome to the “The Laws of (Pri)Luck.”
(The first one may be a little controversial. It is not meant to sway you politically or religiously. But, this morning I took Justin with me to vote because I wanted him to understand that someday this would be his civic duty. As we listened to the pundits on the radio before we arrived at the polling place, the following “Law” dawned on me:)
Law #1: Never believe anyone who tells you to love or hate something or someone because it’s “God’s Will.”
Boys – Maybe there is a God and maybe there isn’t. I don’t know. But, it has been my experience that anyone who passes judgment and justifies it as “God’s Will” as their only reasoning can be undone with one question: What are all Ten Commandments? You may be surprised to find that most people cannot list them all. According to recent data from a research group, 22 percent of Americans could not name even four of the Ten Commandments. (I’m attaching the list so you can see what they are.)
As you can see, nowhere on this list are any mentions of the (sometimes) controversial issues of bioethics, birth control, abortion, immigration, drugs, pornography, Global Warming, censorship, reproductive rights, taxation, gun control, racism, Creationism vs. Evolution, discrimination, homosexuality, gay marriage, etc. The list is pretty simple: love each other and don’t purposely hurt one another. (And to be clear, these concepts are the foundation of most religions. These are not just Judeo-Christian ideals.) All the other issues I mentioned earlier – you are supposed to figure out on your own!
As time goes on and you get older, you will make your own decisions as to where you stand on certain issues. (Boys – At no point in this posting have I actually told you what I believe and why. That is something we can talk about later…privately.) My advice is to use your head and your heart and some deductive reasoning when deciding – not the rantings of madmen who claim to know some “divine being’s” plan, but can’t remember his actual commandments!
