June is the month of graduations.\u00a0 And right on schedule I attended two graduations this weekend.\u00a0 The first one was a very minor but poignant event.\u00a0 Our littlest grandchild, Princess Sack of Potatoes was finishing up her year of gym class.\u00a0 Camera Girl and I dutifully showed up at this august occasion and watched through the glass as our little athlete tumbled and climbed and performed the baby steps version of gymnastics on balance beams and parallel bars and rings.\u00a0 We applauded and made all the right noises while she and her variously gifted team mates impressed their parents and relatives.\u00a0 Afterwards she got a heavy iron star shaped medal spray painted with gold to wear around her neck and then we all went to our favorite local steakhouse and enjoyed some red meat.\u00a0 I got the ribeye.<\/p>\n
Then today was a more important milestone my oldest grandson graduated from high school with high honors and full scholarship to the local college of his choice.\u00a0 As was fitting for this more serious occasion, the ceremony took a few hours, if you include the process of showing up early enough to get good seats and parking spots at the outdoor ceremony.\u00a0 The girl who gave the valedictory address was appropriately eloquent and choked with emotion.\u00a0 Although some gusts of wind threatened to blow away the pages of her speech and her graduation cap.\u00a0 But Camera Girl and I agreed that the speeches were well spoken and heartfelt, as the moment required.\u00a0 We took the requisite photos as the diploma was handed to our young scholar and I even captured the capstone shot of the class tossing their caps into the air.\u00a0 And afterwards we once again headed to that same steakhouse and partook of red meat.\u00a0 This time I just had a burger since my son-in-law was paying and I am not unaware of the costs in raising four children in today\u2019s brutal economic situation.<\/p>\n
And when we got home Camera Girl and I agreed that it was the perfect weekend.\u00a0 Of course, tomorrow is Father\u2019s Day, that least understood holiday on the calendar.\u00a0 When we\u2019re young we would make a card for our father and later on we would buy him a tie and maybe at some point later in life we would get him some artifact that might be associated with one of his pastimes or for home improvement.\u00a0 Now that I\u2019ve reached grandfather status Father\u2019s Day is sort of a stretch.\u00a0 My sons-in-law are the objects of this ritual and they will be forced to express gratitude for the well-meaning but mostly useless gifts.<\/p>\n
But all fathers know that the true gift every father is looking for is represented by the ceremony I attended today.\u00a0 When a father has a son who makes the transition from boy to man that is the reward for years and decades of working to make him a functional member of society and hopefully puts him on the road to being able to have a family of his own.\u00a0 And in a similar way, when a daughter grows up and starts a family of her won it is the realization of this same process.\u00a0 It is the continuation of the human race.\u00a0 We provide them a good home and try to teach children what a family is about and hope they\u2019ll try to copy this pattern and produce their own home in the future.<\/p>\n
By any definition of conservatism, that is the most essential component of conservative life; to replicate the circle of life.\u00a0 To conserve the family.\u00a0 In fact, regardless of what we do in the political realm as far as constitutional freedoms and rights, if we don\u2019t manage to reproduce our families into the next generation then we have failed utterly and our story ends there.\u00a0 We\u2019ll have to step aside and let someone more adept at human relations take a whack at it.<\/p>\n
Tomorrow I\u2019ll get calls from my kids and maybe my grandkids (although that\u2019s a usurpation of their fathers\u2019 prerogatives of the day) and I\u2019ll be pleased as can be that they remember me on the day.\u00a0 But the great victory is counting those grandchildren and being allowed to share a little in their lives and their accomplishments and knowing that the circle continues and some part of me lives on both genetically and in the traditions and memories that we have built.<\/p>\n
Whenever I talk to them, I stress (probably excessively) that they have family that cares about them and will be there if they need help.\u00a0 I want them to know they are part of a group that they can depend on and that can depend on them too.<\/p>\n
So Happy Father\u2019s Day.\u00a0 Make some memories with those kids.\u00a0 It\u2019s probably the most important work you\u2019ll ever do as a conservative but more importantly as a man.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
June is the month of graduations.\u00a0 And right on schedule I attended two graduations this weekend.\u00a0 The first one was a very minor but poignant<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,2860],"tags":[83,1936,2093,2341],"class_list":["post-19370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-reclaiming-the-family","tag-family","tag-fathers-day","tag-reclaiming-the-family","tag-traditional-family"],"yoast_head":"\n