06 September 2007

Fatherly Tenderness

More thoughts I jotted down while in the Brazilian Beauty's ward:

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It's interesting where my thoughts have been flying. For example, as I saw the bishop's councilor gently interact with his little daughter who ventured up to join him on the stand, I thought of the joy of being a father, and the tenderness which many fathers show, the tenderness I think I would enjoy with a little one. I remembered when a father of a kid from another ward in my stake gently ran his fingers across my back, in that churchy way people sometimes do, during a devotional on a youth temple trip and how significant that seemed at the time that a fatherly figure would do that. It occurred to me back then how rare male touch was and how soothing it felt.
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It's kind of an incomplete thought, but it was interesting to me. My desire to be or appreciation for that kind of a father and my appreciation for the dissolution of traditionally extreme gender roles was deep, and I was full of gratitude for a society which is more amenable than it used to be to men expressing emotion and tenderness and not balking at their perceived weakness because of it.

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