From Nothing Evolves the Ultimate Father

From nothing something ... and something extraordinary. That is the only way to explain how it is that James Earl Jones (whose father was out of his life before he was in it) has come to play Big Daddy in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams (who had a strained to the point of near nothing relationship with his own father). James, voice also of (anti-father) Darth Vadar and Lion King Mustafa, among his many other roles, is in fact the father figure extraordinaire in the play that celebrates the role in grand style.

Quite the human equation: an actor without a dad plus a role written by a man without a positive relationship with his dad somehow creates the ultimate father figure. How does this sort of thing happen?

Why Unfold Mystery

It would be probably be helpful for fathers to understand fate a bit better so as to provide a steadier hand in leading children and grandchildren (and, hopefully, great- and perhaps even great-greatgrandchildren).

Still, the mystical blending of suffering and glee that is existence is a tough nut to crack, so to speak. How can one adequately pull apart the strands of being that cause a dad of three who has been unemployed for more than a year to win the lottery. What kind of example of higher thinking could it be that causes a 44-year-old man who breaks a finger playing with his son to die while the pinky is being treated. And what exactly could be the straight and narrow for a guy to follow that leads from holding his daughter after living with the mother he no longer cares for down the wedding aisle and to the point where he holds grandchildren he cares for with all his heart.

Of course, while understanding life might be helpful, it is a key to dads that they do try to make everything work, so it is also very possible they might lose some interest in the whole thing.

Who's My Daddy?!?!

Saturday, Nov. 21, was National Adoption Day in the United States. Fathers and their children celebrated in Olathe (Kansas), Plattsburgh (New York), Dallas (Texas), Rockford (Illinois) ....

Pretty much across the country EXCEPT (we are pretty sure) for one household in LA, where the joy of adoption and love of a child for the parents who took him in has had a dark cloud cast over it. Matthew Roberts, 41, went in search of his biological father only to find his genes are those of satanic crazy Charles Manson. Happy NAD, indeed.

No, I didn't Say 'Rabbit Ears'

This week's objet d'eBay, a window decal declaring a mammalian parental relationship, may well be something to stock up on. Thanks to scientific advances, rabbit penises can now be grown ... and perhaps someday attached to humans much as we now have other animal organs transplanted to humans. Sometime in the future, f***ing like a bunny could well be taking on a whole new meaning: get your sticker before they run out.

Witnesses for the Defense?

It's not looking good for Barack Hussein Obama Sr., father of seven, including U.S. President Obama [Earlier: Dreams and Don't Lose Out to the Gatekeeper] and his half brother, Mark Okoth Obama Ndesandjo.

The two, who got together for a few minutes recently when the president was in China, have both written books about their father. The President's is more about what he missed with his father gone; Ndesandjo's is a novel featuring an abusive man, with the author claiming that it is very much based in his own reality.

So, Sr. have five more kids who can weigh in to defend him, but given the first two pieces evidence, it's not looking good at all for him during his trial in the court of history.

Drop Your Weapon

Can it really be true that one in five divorcing spouses (women, it seems from a recent article on why dads often get "the blame") admit to using the kids and custody as a weapon?

The only good news from that line of questioning is that if it is a weapon, it seems to be losing its effectiveness as courts are more likely to make sure fathers receive equal time with the kids and (in learning valuable lessons from unfortunate circumstances) second-time-around divorcers are smarter about making sure they get their time with their kids.

The Followers

There's the old saw to "lead, follow or get out of the way," but that's not quite how it works with the son-father dynamic. In most cases, sons can only choose to follow — as in the case of Bill Fisher, son of Gap Founder Don Fisher and newly appointed to his late father's seat on the company board — or let go — as Ted Kennedy Jr. has chosen to do with regard to the election for his late father's Senate seat.

Let's Use Fathers to Make Big Bucks

(US)$120,000,000.

That's the WD prediction for the box office gross of Courageous, a movie coming soon to a pulpit near you, aimed at the primarily caucasian, prosperity and Pentacostal church audiences who brought $33 mill to Sherwood Productions for Fireproof.

So far (and thanks to a year of prayer and their belief that the results has been their God leading them thisaway), Sherwood has a movie name and a theme — four fathers in law enforcement forced by tragedy to look at themselves and others — and is asking for the prayers (and maybe pre-sales and bookings) of its intended audience as they go about actually writing and producing the film.

Naturally, they also have a marketing pitch. It's a good one, "calling men to rise up with strength and with leadership in their homes and with their families and with their children [and to] take the role of father as God intended" (as understood and interpreted by Sherwood).

Fathers forged from tragedy. Box office gold. Roll film.