"I want to be quick to say that the time of the Cowboy is not meant to be merely on of unending adventure. Many fatherless young men find life in some adventure like kayaking or snowboarding, and they stay there and make it their world. They adopt the culture of the sport, the language and the clothing that identify them as a really cool adventurer. They might take a job at a resort or as a guide, in order to do it 24-7. But the adventure loses its transcendence, and they find themselves stuck in their journey. They are modern-day Peter Pans, refusing to grow up as men. On the surface they seem alive, and free, and daring. Beneath, they are uncertain and ungrounded. And they have broken the hearts of many young women who loved the adventurer, and didn't understand why he wouldn't go on to be the Warrior, and the Lover, and the King. The balance here to adventure is that this season in a young man's life is equally a time of learning to work."
As a Beloved Son, discipline is one of the most important things a father can offer his son, and it is that discipline which strengthens the son to grow and be able to work. As a Cowboy, one of the most important things a father can teach his son is how to work. Growing up, my dad didn't really teach me a skill. I'm not a carpenter in any way. I hate working on cars with a passion. But my dad taught me how to work. I can do manual labor harder and longer than most guys my age. If there is work to do I can start early and go non-stop until its dark. I know how to work.
This is an important lesson for a boy to learn, and it is something every man needs to know. But it seems to be becoming a lost art. In this day and age everything seems to be about getting things done for you, and keeping your clothes clean. People are afraid of getting their hands dirty, to get dirt under their fingernails. Many think that somehow certain tasks are below them.
I've found a love for gardening. The satisfaction of planting a seed and caring for it as it grows until it produces food for you to eat, it's an awesome feeling. I've spent a lot of time over the last year learning about the wide variety of things that I can grow, and with that I've started putting a dream on paper. One day I'm hoping to be blessed with a piece of land, hopefully a large, open field with trees on the edges. I want to plant an orchard with close to sixty fruit trees, and a stone patio and arbor to one side to be able to sit and watch the sunset in. I've got an idea for a large berry patch, over 270 plants, as well as some chestnut and almond trees. On top of that are the sunflowers, and vegetable gardens, and an area of mulberries, crabapples, and a clover, alfalfa, and turnip food plot to attract the deer, rabbits, and birds away from everything else. Somewhere I'm hoping to put a maple grove so that I can make my own syrup.
My wife likes weeping willows, so I want to put in a pond and plant a couple of those around the border. I want to take the dirt from the pond and use it to build a backstop for a shooting range. It's all there, made to scale, and color coordinated. I've spent hours working on this, every time longing for the day that it will hopefully become a reality. And the longer I have to wait, the more detailed things get. It will be a lot of work. Lots of planting and then there are fences to put up. After that there is the work to care for and maintain everything, but honestly, its work my soul longs to be able to do.
"Life is hard. While he is the Beloved son, a boy is largely shielded from this reality. But a young man needs to know that life is hard, that it won't come to you like Mom used to make it come to you, all soft and warm and to your liking, with icing. It comes to you more the way Dad makes it come to you - with testing, as on a long hike or trying to get an exhaust manifold replaced. Until a man learns to deal with the fact that life is hard, he will spend his days chasing the wrong thing, using all his energies trying to make life comfortable, soft, nice, and that is no way for any man to spend his life."
From the very beginning, man was put her to work and tend the earth; after the fall the work required intensified. Life requires something of a man, it requires him to work, and the result of that work is the ability to enjoy life. Discipline is taught to the Beloved Son, so that he learns obedience and is able to find freedom. Work leads to adventure and enjoyment. The reason I like fruit trees is because they produce something I can enjoy. And when a boy is taught how to work, it opens endless possibilities for him.
"Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."
To God alone be the Glory!
Strength and Honor
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