Dive into the precious moments when kids reveal their inherent goodness, like the pure love they show upon meeting a sibling. Explore how sharing without prompting showcases the natural purity in children. Parenting involves a crucial duty: to nurture and protect this innate goodness. In a world often overshadowed by darkness, fathers are tasked with helping their children 'carry the fire'—a metaphor for hope and light. Embrace these responsibilities daily to ensure that innocence thrives and continues to inspire future generations.
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Inherent Goodness
Humans are born with inherent goodness, a gift of purity and innocence.
Our job as fathers is to protect and nurture this "fire" within our children.
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Carry the Fire
Protect and encourage your children's inherent goodness.
Help them carry the "fire" of innocence and pass it on to future generations.
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The Road is set in a world that has been devastated by an unspecified cataclysmic event, resulting in the extinction of nearly all life on Earth. The story follows an unnamed father and his young son as they travel south along the road, carrying their meager possessions and a pistol with only two bullets. The father, suffering from a worsening respiratory condition, is determined to protect his son from the dangers of their new world, including cannibalistic marauders. Along their journey, they encounter various survivors, some of whom are cruel and others who show kindness. The novel explores themes of love, survival, and the preservation of humanity in a world devoid of hope. Ultimately, the father's health fails, and he dies, but not before ensuring his son's safety with a new family who may offer a chance for a better future[2][3][4].
There are brief moments where you get a glimpse inside your kid’s soul. When they meet their baby brother or sister for the first time and start to cry because of how much love they feel. When they say something truthful and real in a way that adults would never dare. When they offer to share what little they have with somebody else, without any prompting from you.
It’s in these moments that you get the sense that humans are born with inherent goodness. It’s not something we are just taught. It’s a gift that comes to us at birth. There is purity there. Innocence. And yet, as a grown up, you’ve seen enough of the world to know that most people are no longer innocent and pure and good.
So what does that mean? It means your job as a dad is to protect and encourage and nurture that goodness. In Cormac McCarthy’s haunting novel, The Road, he calls this “the fire.” A dad’s job is to help their child carry the fire, to keep them safe long enough that this goodness can pass onto the next generation, and that hope and light can remain in this dark world a little longer.
That’s what you have to do today and every day. Help them carry the fire. Protect the gift. Pass on the light.
The Daily Dad 