A Dad’s Role in a Rite of Passage

“There’s a saying in the South: ”No man is a man until his father tells him he is.”” – Burt Reynolds  (late Hollywood Actor)

“The glory of sons are their fathers.” – King Solomon

The late Hollywood Actor, Burt Reynolds, was widely viewed in the 1970s and early 1980s as the quintessential man.
Appearing in over 50 movies, I remember Burt Reynolds from his roles in the “Smokey and the Bandit” and “Cannonball Run” movies, and their subsequent sequels.
Almost every man at the time wanted to be just like Burt Reynolds… an action man and sex symbol.

Yet few were aware that he was just like the rest of us men… acting and pretending… hiding behind a persona that we men typically tend to create for ourselves… of what we believe society requires a man to be and do.
It wasn’t until an interview with Dotson Rader in 1992, at the age of 56 years, that the truth of this in Burt Reynolds’ life was revealed.
This is what he had to say…

“There’s a saying in the South: “No man is a man until his father tells him he is.” 

It means that someday when you’re 30 or 40, grown up, this man – whom you respect and love and want to love you – puts his arms around you and says, “You know, you’re a man now, and you don’t have to do crazy things and get into fistfights and all that to defend the honour of men.

You don’t have to prove anything.

You’re a man, and I love you.”

We never hugged, we never kissed, we never said, “I love you”.

No, we never cried.”

After pausing for a moment, Reynolds went on to add… “So what happened was that I was desperately looking for someone who’d say, “You’re grown up, and I approve and love you, and you don’t have to do these things anymore.”

I was lost inside. I couldn’t connect. I was incomplete.

I didn’t know then what I needed to know.”

Those descriptions… “lost inside”, unable to “connect”, “incomplete”, and not knowing “what I needed to know”… are what I see and hear in the stories of the majority of men today… or at least those who are willing and courageous enough to be real.

And I have to agree with Burt Reynolds as to why that is the case… because most men today are for the most-part, “unfathered”.

You see I believe that the word father is most appropriately used as a verb, rather than a noun.

As Author Kent Nerburn said… “It is much easier to become a father than to be one.”

A boy and or young man needs a father… his Dad, or a father figure (Uncle, Grandfather, mentor, coach, teacher, Pastor etc.) to bestow masculinity upon him… to guide him along the path of authentic manhood… to love him, to affirm and bless him, to offer practical training and instruction, and when the time is right… to call him out of boyhood, and up and into authentic manhood.

Of course many Dads today feel like they don’t have what it takes to offer this to their sons, predominantly because they themselves didn’t receive what they should have received from their own Dads.

‘Fathering Adventures’ experientially equips and empowers Dads to do this, and to do it well.

It is for that reason we designed and deliver our guided “Rite of Passage” Son and Father Adventure experiences.
You can register for one of those here today.

So how about you?

Did you have a “father” who knew what you needed and provided it for you?

If so, and he is still alive, then please take the time to thank him, and honour him.

And if you didn’t... then you’re not alone.

Would you have liked to have had a “father” who did?

Do you intend to do things differently?