Finding Your Ur-Father Part I: Fathers as the Source

This is the first post in a series leading up to the European Men’s Gathering this year, which I will be posting in order to set out my thoughts on the subject. You can read the entire article here: https://maniphesto.com/finding-your-ur-father/

Fathers. We all have one. Most of us become one at some point in our life.

But a father is not just a description of a biological relationship between a living being and its offspring.

It is far more than that.

For anything or anyone born, a Father and Mother are the source of their being. The creators and sustainers of our life. For a family, a father is most often the main provider. A Founding Father is the architect of the rules governing a society. Father figures are often the rulers and arbiters of our communities. Fathers of organisations are the initiators, the engineers of the culture.

The Fathers of Western civilisation such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle have shaped the very way that we can possibly think and perceive logic and rationality. Isaac Newton laid the foundation of the modern scientific method and our understanding of the material world. American life and thus global culture is shaped by the Founding Fathers of the USA constitution.

A more recent example, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was founded and developed by Gastão Gracie in Rio De Janeiro in the 20th century and transformed the entire world of martial arts.

No matter what community or activity you are involved in, chances are there was a father figure who initiated and laid out the framework for it.

We owe much to our Fathers. Actually we owe everything to our fathers – in one sense, everything in existence, everything that we enjoy and appreciate is a result of a father and a mother. Perhaps that is why we can at times take them for granted.

My purpose here is to challenge you to deepen your understanding of Fatherhood and your relationship to fatherhood. Of course that is relevant for your biological father. But it is more interesting for your understanding of the father figures in general. My aim here is to go all the way and challenge you to look at your understanding of the Ur-Father.

Continue to the next post:
Part II: How to be Father