Context as Critique

Context is a complicator. Take some random actions (e.g., trying to free one's child from the grasp of another; telling a son to get into a fight; disciplining a child for going against your wishes; aching to comfort; etc.) and without knowing when and how they were taken it is impossible to define whether or not a man is being a good father.

Take helping your child escape the clutches of someone who is mad at her; perhaps even getting into a fight so your daughter can flee. That sounds like a good thing. However, it wasn't in the case of New Hampshire's Richard Abrahams, who was arrested for committing such a noble sounding act. Which sounds pretty unfair until one learns that his daughter Amanda, 18, was shoplifting before he assaulted and battered the shopkeeper.

But what about sending your son, actually taking him with you, to get beat up. Sounds pretty bad. Except that it turns out to be a pretty wonderful thing for dads Enzo Calzaghe and Roy Jones Sr. to have done for sons Joe and Roy Jr. Although the fathers took very different paths in creating their sons as prize fighters, the paths both led to a fight for history and glory, if not necessarily for a title.

Also, while it is usually a best-practice act to require discipline when a child acts up, consider the father who doesn't want to see his child after she acts contrary to authority. Actually, consider the case of Gholam and Esha Momeni. At first, father G didn't want to see daughter E, apparently thinking that the Iranian government locking her up was a proper punishment for her pursuing her graduate school research into the rights of women in the Islamic republic. Fortunately, he has had some second thoughts. She, however, is still imprisoned, which at the very least makes it likely she'll have to ask for an extension due her detention.

Finally, note how fatherlike it is to try and steer a job a young man's way and to feel responsible for trying to comfort him when he gets hurt on that job. Note, too, that acting fatherlike does not a father make as demonstrated by Roger Moore's interest in the most recent "Bond, James Bond," Daniel Craig.

The good, the bad, the father act. Only circumstances can tell.