To Be a Man is to be there for others

This title was from the front of a birthday card from my son and his wife and my grandson to me this year.

And this, from my point of view at 73 years here on earth is truly what it is to be a man here on earth.

Other more selfish points of view hopefully each of us outgrow over time. Because if you live long enough you can see the truth of this in everything you do as a man.  

What you do isn't really for yourself because none of us lives long enough for that.

So, what we do has to be for generations as yet unborn.

For example, when I was 12 my father taught me the electrician's trade summers from age 12 to 17 so I would always have a trade as an electrician no matter what else I did in life. I personally liked being an entrepreneur more than being an electrician but sometimes I worked as an electrician in my 20s too. But, by the timeI was 28 I started owning businesses as I was more suited to this.

But, what touched me as I applied the electrical trade with my father is that the lights, electrical outlets, and appliances that we installed then when I was young many of them are still being used almost 60 years later today in both newer homes then and in older remodels we worked in as well as warehouses we rewired then. So, what I did then with my father is often still useful almost 60 years later regarding the work I did from 1960 to 1970 and sometimes after then too. So, you can see what we build at any age often lasts years (25,50, or even 100 years later in how it helps people in their lives in various ways.

Some times I built as a carpenter. And still about 50 years later now I still eat at a restaurant in Mt. Shasta that I put the roof on in the 1970s with friends.

So, in many different ways: "To be a man is to be there for others" along the way of your life.

Even Harrison Ford was a carpenter when he wasn't acting back then and Robert Redford built his own home too. So, all these skills we gain along the way (in addition to college) and life experience in general helps us to learn that: "To be a man is to be there for others".