Something To Live For

I'm pretty certain
That if you threaten my children
I'm gon kill you!
If you threaten my mother
I'll end your life!
If you make suggestions of bodily harm
Towards my brother My woman
Or towards me personally
I believe that I will make certain that your days on this Earth come to an abrupt halt.
As a man, the protector within me can see no other acceptable course.
I have not been called upon to do this as yet
But I'm sure that If necessary, I will.
Also, as a man, I am fully aware that I have equally important and far more frequently to be performed duties
I provide
I teach
And I lead.

If called upon, the protector in this man will kill!
But the parts of me that are needed day to day go forth strongly because I have
Something To Live For!

This is how I bring myself to work and pray and push forward every day.

I wish to watch my babies grow. I want to hear them coo, to see them crawl, to hear them cry. I wish to be close by when they get up, step, wobble, and fall. Then get up again. I want to see them walking, running, and playing. I wish to see them and smile to myself as they do the exact things that they have seen me do and I wish to hear them complain when they think that I want them to be copies of me.
They think they are so smart,
But they have no idea how very wrong they are.
I don't want copies.
I want to see them match me, exceed me, surpass me.
For every joyous moment I've had, I wish them to have ten.
I want the reality of their lives to equal the grandeur of their dreams. I hope to see them have children of their own so that they too will know the truth of being parents and not just the "woe is me, perpetual victim" perspective of the downtrodden child. I want them to understand that parents are not the horrid ogres and overbearing, fun killing entities we seem to be.
I would like them to know the fears of a parent.
From the mother's pre-birth concern that her child may be retarded,
To the Father's certainty that his child "has got to be retarded" because "that boy can't remember nothing I tell him once he leaves the room".
Having that same child graduate at the top of his class, or just with his right class, is only one of the many great joys that comes with being a parent.
This is what I want for them.
All the adrenaline inducing fast cars, roller coasters, and skydiving in the world cannot match the wonderful, vicarious thrill one gets with the" virtual "second chance at life through the success of the seeds we plant. Nothing like watching your own acorns become powerful, seed bearing oaks in their own right.
If you ever see a child of yours do something that you've done well do it even better than you have or if you see that child excel at something you were afraid to attempt, you'll know exactly what I mean.
I live to see the smile on the face of the woman I love when the happiness in her eyes is directed at me.
I love the sunrise.
I love the rain.
I love the feel of wet grass underfoot in the morning. I live to see another day dawn and another night fall. I live to see the look on my child's face when she hook her first big fish.
I live to see the glow of accomplishment when my teen-ager first learns to drive.
I live to coach my younguns through that first heartbreak and that first bad grade in school, provided I don't decide to kill them instead.
I live to see if my sons will be stronger than their Daddy. Just as I am now, finally, stronger than my Daddy. I think it would be cool as Hell to have a son, or two, who benches 650 pounds. Right now I have a 20yr old who squats 575 and I'm struggling to stay above 600.
I live for myself. There is so much I don't know and so many things I have not seen. I wish to change that. Many places exist that I have yet to visit. The more that I learn, the more aware I become that there is so much more out there. And I feel there is so much more I should know. The ignorance I feel does not insult me. It reminds me to be humble.
As I go through my days, I live to not die with too many lessons unlearned.
I live because of the joy I have seen in this world that follows the pain that each person must live through.
I live because I do and I can and I must.
I live because, while relatively dumb, I know there is still much I can teach to, and share with, whomever I may cross paths with.
This, my friend, is my Something To Live For!

But should anyone choose to threaten those I hold dear
Please know that the protector in me will be waiting and ready