Growing Up Without a Blueprint

Uh, I grew up, uh, without a father, and I think that the last time he was around was three years old.

So I grew up with all those questions in my life.

You know, what, what is a man? And you never really realize that the examples that you gather for your own life, say, to be a man, that they normally come from the people that are closest to you.

So if you have a older brother, it might be your older brother, or if you have a father in the home, you'd look towards your father.

And something, I didn't have either of those, so you know where I used to look, Jonas?

Hmm.

I used to look at the TV.

Ooh.

And, uh, nah, it wasn't all bad, man.

You know, I would look around and, and wanna know an example of a, you know, what it meant to be a father.

And I'd find a father on TV and I'd be like, "Man, that's the way it is.

Leave It to Beaver."

Hmm.

You know? Uh, all these shows, man.

So these are the ideas that I grew up with around fatherhood and-

What about, like, Andy Griffith?

Andy Griffith, man, was a great one.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But just growing up watching these men participate in life and lead these families, man, was foreign to me, 'cause I didn't see it in my own home.

So, you know, progress and, you know, get 12 or 13 years old, I began to see the value really in having a father around when people were talking about things that they did with their dad or, uh, places that their dad took them or something they'd learned from their dad.

And there were things that I wasn't good at that other boys my age were good at, like catching a ball or knowing how to play sports or knowing about sports.

Just all these different things.

So I begin to see all these areas that I was lacking in, man.

It was, it was a dark part of my life to really realize that I was out there alone with no examples, man, and I just began to think as Jonas was challenging me, you know, what's going on now? What's, what's, what's some things that you could talk to men about now, uh, that are important to you, that are personal to you? And what do you think a man is, and what's a great man, and all this because that's who we wanna build.