The Heart of Every Father there is a Poet

As I was reflecting on Father’s Day, I came across a writing by the great Catholic philosopher, G.K. Chesterton.  What I like about this man is that he doesn’t argue that logic is wrong, but he argues that a lack of creativity and imagination will create insanity. He argues for the poet in all of us.  I have used one of his writings from his book “Orthodoxy” as a basis for my own reflection on fatherhood. Here is my reflection:

The basis of fatherhood is simple. A good father must be a poet.  This allows him to navigate easily in a never ending sea of God’s love and goodness.  Without a spirit of poetry, a father will only be grounded by reason and logic.  Reason tries to make the infinite finite.  Logic desires justification. 

A father anchored only by reason and logic will see his little boy’s typical Saturday morning football game as a chance for rivalry and physical dexterity. He will demand  of his son competence and cleverness , yet the father who is a poet will be able to see the game from his little boy’s stance: a day to share an open grassy field with his dad, his protector,  and find out how many puddles he can find on the field to tackle on.

A father who always operates on reason and logic becomes exhausted quickly.  He will strain to understand everything and to know everything and to be everything for his children.  The poetic father will prefer openness to a relationship with his children and joy in seeing them live in right relationship and joy with God and with others. 

The poetic father searches and creates a world that allows him to increase his love for his children.  This kind of father begs God daily to allow his children a glimmer of heaven; while the rational father will search to create a heaven for his children.  The logical father may be disappointed when he realizes that heaven is too large for even his own imagination. It is in our own willingness to deny ourselves on their behalf,  to endure  their illnesses and their questions with patience, to love them despite everything, to trust them, to let them go and become their own person; this way we can be a reflection of God’s love, we can be a glimmer of heaven for them.

So, it is simple then: Fathers be in prayer every day! Let prayer be your gateway to the poetry that no doubt is at the center of every father's heart.

I am thankful for my own Father, my father in law, and my husband, each who I know pray daily for thier children and have personally sacrficed for them as well.  Each one of you have hearts and minds of poets!!  Happy Father's Day!!