In (e)volved

Acts around the world are taking place to get dads involved with their kids. It may not be much for wealthy men in the Philippines to start up a "Father's Action Network/Dad's for Life" program or for new fathers to get little cards from the British National Health Service telling them what to do so as to do better by their kids.

Still, it is something and even the tiniest jots of info about holding, burping, swaddling and diapering can't hurt ... and might even include moments of fun.

Into the Beyond.

Is it more impressive for a father to head into a place where society has never seen a dad before, or is it overwhelming enough when a father takes only himself to a place nobody could ever have imagined him? Why not vote?

Those who opt for the society changer can consider the case of Army Reserve Lt. Col. Keith Reagan, a father, one of a few, leading a girl scout troop. If ever there was a glass ceiling men couldn't break through it would have seemed to be the world of GSA.

However, while Reagan challenges society, Marc Tremitier challenged himself. Although he's pretty blase — saying of his experience only, "That was life. It takes you for a ride...." — the story in words and pictures of how he delivered his baby boy Niko is breathtakingly haunting. He has been changed.

So, it's society or the invididual. Which father deserves your vote for going further beyond presumed barriers?

Volved?

What exactly is a volved? More and more fathers are volunteering or being asked to be in one. And it seems to be working out. But can anyone pinpoint the definition when the men and the situations seem so wide ranging?

There are the dads who have just taken part in the annual fathers' walks around the country as dads strolled with the kinder on the first day of school. There are pops on patrol in schools, volunteers who for a few days each school year serve as peacekeepers and and role models. And there are homosexual men who are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars and jumping through all sorts of hoops to become fathers.

Everyone seems pretty happy in each of the reports — there is even a science of involvement — so whatever the volved is, it must be a pretty good and complex place to be in.