Our homestead is for sale!

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Here's to men

On this Father's Day weekend, I wrote what I thought would be a positive WND column praising men (appropriately titled Here's to the Men)...

...but it seems to have generated a surprising amount of dissension. Go figure.

To all the dads out there, Happy Father's Day!


  1. That was an interesting troll feeding party wasn't it.

    I liked the way ol' Bob avoided the point that he either failed to mention children (which would say alot if he had) or didn't have any.

    Regardless of which is true it speaks volumes.

  2. Not really all that much dissension. Just a couple of snarky liberal plants, trying to stir up trouble and sound like morons. They didn't really stir up all that much trouble, but I'd say they did a pretty good job at sounding like morons! We're getting good at spotting 'em, Patrice! (Anybody who's really THAT ignorant wouldn't even be reading your columns. Too much good common sense and decency.) --Fred in AZ

  3. This was so good and I am sorry to see it spiral into another direction everything you said is soooo true of good men. I am thinking of my own good husband, my Dad and Grandpa who all worked to support their families loyal hardworking long suffering kind strong quiet respected by family and friends alike, I feel sad for anyone who has not been able yet to experiance such a man, they are out there, just often overlooked in this world which looks for sparkle over everything else. Karen

  4. Great article Patrice. Thanks for all that you do.

  5. I was quite taken a back by the comments on the article. It amazes me how a tribute can be turned into something negative by some people. I loved your article, it reminded me of my Dad. He was raised on a dirt farm in Texas by his grandmother because his parents couldn't be bothered with raising him. He went into the military at 16 yrs old, lied about his age. He then spend the rest of his life as a mechanic providing for his family. He paid for my way through college 100%. My successes in life, were his successes as a father. He work example to me has never been forgotten. Did his work change the world? Yes, it changed mine!

  6. Children who grow up in a home with a father like the ones you describe are truly blessed.

  7. this was a beautiful article patrice...i told my own son years ago that i would be happy for him to be a plumber, a janitor, a carpenter, a businessman, or president of the usa - it did not matter to me as long as he was a responsible and loving husband and father and that he was happy and content with what he had and what he was doing with his life.

  8. You're absolutely right: All true, honest work, done well is never meaningless or menial, and deserves respect. I've believed this my whole life because of my father. It bothers me terribly that some people think otherwise.

    Lazy work, done poorly, no matter what the actual job, is an insult to the Almighty and to other human beings.

    Your article is a great reminder.

    Just Me

  9. Funny, when I think of "meaningful work", those sorts of jobs pop right into mind.

    Everybody who drives (or, for that matter, rides in) a four-wheeled vehicle needs the guy who mounts tires. Everybody riding on those trains needed your grandfather shoveling the coal. No coal shoveling equals no moving train equals no passengers or cargo getting to where they need to be.

    "If, tomorrow morning, every person in the world who did this job were gone...would anyone else notice?" If the answer is "yes", then I'd call it meaningful work, and would indeed postulate that you could quantify _how_ meaningful by the number of people who would, in fact, notice its absence.

    Ivory-tower types getting paid other people's money to sneer at menial jobs? Not so meaningful. Unless you've got one of them in your own family, your life is utterly unaffected by their "work" until the very instant it shapes government policy (at which point they're shoved down your throat at gunpoint, of course). Whereas the guys who mount tires on wheel rims? If they go away, civilization will fall within a week. That's what _I_ call "meaningful work".

    The academic types are right about one thing, though. Young people desperately need exposure to meaningful work. They just have a completely broken idea about what "meaningful" means. :)