187 – A Family Tradition…our responsibility as men - a podcast by Alf Herigstad

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A Family Tradition…our responsibility as men
Welcome one and all to Being A Better Man.  The podcast that is focused on the character of men…for the sake of the rest of the world.  My name is Alf Herigstad, I’m your host, and I am very glad you are listening today.Hey if you enjoy this podcast, if you agree with the mission here, it would mean a lot to me if you pop over to the https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/being-a-better-man/id1076809446?mt=2 (iTunes) page and leave a rating and review.  The more reviews I have the more visible the show becomes, and it makes it easier for new listeners to find it.  Thank you for doing that.
Also, if you are a regular consumer of the show, and you would like to help keep this content coming, there is another way you can show your support.  You can go to Patreon and actually become a patron of the show by pledging your support on a monthly basis.  It can be as little as a dollar a month, or as much as you want.  When you do that it does two things;  it lets me know that the show is having an impact and you want more, and it also helps me with some of the expenses associated with producing the show.  You can watch a video I made and learn more about it at: http://www.beingabettermanpodcast.com/Patreon (http://www.beingabettermanpodcast.com/Patreon)If you have been listening for awhile, you know that these episodes cover a pretty wide range of topics, but they all ultimately relate to our life as men, and being a better man than we were yesterday.
You may have wondered how I come up with the topics I talk about, and how I decide what to talk about on any given day.  Well basically, I just look around in the world.  I see whats going on.  I listen to the news and see what people are talking about on social media, and I ponder what effect it all has on the state of manhood in the world.  Usually there is something that is sticking in my brain more than other things, and I talk about that.
Today there is something sticking in my brain, and I need to talk about it.  This doesn’t come to me from the world at large, but rather from my own life.  It’s a very personal topic for me.  Today I’m talking about family.  More specifically, the importance of family customs and traditions, and our role as men within our families.I got to thinking about this because my son and his daughter are in town for a visit from Michigan.  One of the things my family likes to do when we all get together, is sing.  We are a very musical family.  The creation or appreciation of music is something that we share.  So we all went out as a family for a night of Karaoke.
I was singing, so was my brother and my son and daughter.  Watching my children sing always gives me goosebumps, because it sort of defines them as members of our clan, doing something that has been passed along from one generation to the next.  I sang a duet with my son, and that was a lot of fun.  My brother is amazing to listen to and frequently gets standing ovations.Then I looked at my father.  The patriarch of the family, my mentor, the same man who molded me from his example of what it means to be a man.  He doesn’t sing because his hearing is pretty bad, he’s 81 years old now.  He was sitting there watching all of us, and I could see the pride and joy in his eyes as he watched his progeny demonstrate their togetherness through music and enjoy each others company.  It was one of those moments when I thought “That’s what life is all about.”  This moment is one of the rewards of a life well lived.
My daughter took a picture of him as he was watching one of us singing.  I used that picture for this episode because it really captured that moment.  Its the picture at the top of this page.  That’s my dad.It was a good night.  It was one of many that we have shared throughout my life.  Often when we are sitting as a group we are either telling each other stories,

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