Now is the time of year again when my mind is being flooded with all the memories and knowledge that I acquired during my tenure as a first time Dad to be. a few of my buddies have done either; the most irresponsible thing, or all their hard work has paid off. it depends on how you want to look at it. they have knocked up their lady, wife or significant other. hopefully if everything goes right, a baby is on the way for them. Their lives , like mine, will be changed forever. I learned a lot of stuff along the way. Some i learned first hand. Other stuff I learned by observing other Dads in their natural habitat. Often, I swallowed my pride, gratefully, and learned from veteran fathers of multiple children. I firmly believe that there are different levels of being a man. The first level of manhood comes when you commit to learning from your mistakes. A higher level of manhood comes when you can learn it totality from other peoples mistakes. That being said I know that we are all on our own journeys. I don’t judge like that. I’m just grateful for the opportunities in life. its hard to retain every piece of knowledge that people puke up on you on a daily basis. let alone blindly follow crazy people’s suggestions, when we hold our own opinions above all else. There is this crazy thing that happens to a pregnant woman and or couple, every single person wants to give you advice. you will be walking with you pregnant lady and strangers will seek you out and ask you about your situation only to cut you off and tell you about there own experience. it will happen almost every time you leave the house together and basically anytime anyone finds out that you are expecting. it may be nice if the truly were just kindly inquisitive but you can feel there sense of need to tell their own story and not listen to your own. It is for those reasons that I exercise restraint in my offering up unsolicited opinions and advice to my close friends. Also, you know as men we all drink beers with each other and when things that you advise your buddies against, subsequently manifest predictably, it gets really hard to listen or feel any sense of anything other than contempt when they get stuck in loops that you warned about, counseled on and they still don’t man up and change. then they avoid you just to try to save face, because they know they cant man up and change their situation. Or, you avoid them because listening to the same problems over and over again is like doing the same thing and expecting different results. I still have a lot of good advice to share with people that are searching it out and can benefit from it. I don’t know if you have ever read the 48 laws of power by Robert Greene. You should. You would remember his style of writing as he illustrates a law. He then includes a story of observance of the law and a story of neglect. You can pretty much assume that anything Im sharing with you as we go on that i have exercised or have witnessed observance and neglect of these stories on multiple occasions. enough times to see a pattern. Once i see patterns i set out to learn from them, so that I don’t step in the same poop over and over again. Or, I don’t step in the same poop you step in, immediately after I watch you step in it. maybe you are an outlier. what is an outlier? Outliers are exceptional examples that don’t fall within the average of the group. maybe yes. maybe not. we are all special. we are all unique. knowledge is still power. Im constantly Looking for new ways to ensure the path of least resistance, maintain positivity, and not get my balls busted by my crazy life.
