Dear Daughter...
The following is an excerpt from a Chicago Sun-Times column
which was published on December 5, 2013. To read the entire
column, go to www.suntimes.com.
T
hese are a few lessons on life written to my
daughter. Some of them are rooted in the wisdom of my dearly departed grandmother. Some
rinsed with humor. Some stem from my own
experience — and even my mistakes — as a man. All are
shared in hope and concern. And perhaps in them lie lessons
for all daughters:
Dear daughter, don’t embrace the privilege of being my
daughter but reject the responsibility of being my daughter. I
Coming
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A collection of columns by award-winning Chicago
Sun-Times columnist John W. Fountain. Winner of
the Chicago Journalists’ Association and Illinois Associated Press Editors Awards in 2012 for best commentary.
Fountain’s columns provide a fresh perspective on
the times we live in.
“His writing is crisp and compelling as he tackles
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thoughts and feelings.”—Judges of the Chicago Journalists Association Awards
love you no less when I am giving you words of wisdom and
lessons that you find difficult than when I am giving you good
gifts. You need both for your journey into — and throughout
— womanhood.
Dear daughter, some women say, “All men are dogs!” If this
is true, then some of them must confess to being dogcatchers,
dog keepers, dog lovers and to having laid down with dogs. I
see not a dog in your future but a man.
A BD (a baby daddy) too often becomes just a DB (a deadbeat). Choose instead an HF (husband/father) who will help
you build an FH (family/home).
Don’t settle for a “fixer-upper,” thinking you can “change”
him. It’s easier to flip a house than to flip a man — and a lot
more profitable with a lot
less heartache.
Don’t date a THUG — a
Trifling Harmful Undependable Guy: If his
mother didn’t raise him,
you certainly can’t. So if the
raising’s not done, you’re
stuck with someone else’s
unfinished son.
If you begin making excuses for a man, rest assured you’ll have to keep
making excuses for him.
You can do good all by
yourself….
John W. Fountain is the founder and
president of WestSide Press Books, a
professor of journalism at Roosevelt
University in Chicago and an awardwinning columnist for the Chicago SunTimes.
Fall/Winter 2013 The Well Magazine
15