Can I get much closer to the Divine than when holding an infant? Ya know what I mean?
A lot. I could count dozens, probably hundreds of ways.
Infants are boring if you have more testosterone than (Gabriel help me out here with some of that folksy down home wordplay) a .
So, men can't be happy with their children?
Once their children are self-aware and can start to speak, men can start to be happy. Children are most enjoyable around ten-twelve, once they are beginning to form real personalities, but before they begin to experience major power conflicts with the adults in their lives.
Let me take a stab Orthonorm;
...more testosterone than a
mother hen baking biscuts in the hen house?The only way I can relate to your sentiments gentleman is to view it in solely a practical level. It is true that taking a baby out fishing, or teaching a 6month old how to play ball, or discussing the great philosophies of life with a toddler is not exactly the father child bonding experience books and movies are made of. My daughter is now twenty and we have had, and do have, so many of these practical experiences together. Much happiness has been found in them. However, I still clearly remember the inner joy found bringing her home from the hospital and holding her as an infant in my arms. I recall a time when she ran to me frantically with tears rolling down her face, as a one yr old after I was away on business for a couple of weeks. I remember that with more inner joy than the happiness of teaching her how to ride a bike. I found that even the stages when conflict with adults was the norm, has brought great inner reward by us resolving those conflicts as a father and child. We grow closer to God through struggles, and in the same way I believe often parents and children can find the same.
I guess in one way I can agree with you guys, yet, I also feel the relationship between a child and parent is far more spiritual than the practical happiness we are also blessed with when they reach that age. There is something about a baby that seems so pure and uncontaminated by this world. Something about a baby that needs our service and selfless Love 'as we love ourselves'. Something about a baby that seems closer to touching the Divine than most anything else in life I can experience.
Then again, I can actually cook up some pretty good biscuts and gravy.
