My initial reaction was one of sadness for the nation and for the mothers who either by choice or by pain of abandonment go it alone. But mostly a personal pain for the children, primarily for the boys, who must grow up without a father. You might call it, as does the Cleveland Plain
Dealer, "Fatherless in America. A national tragedy.” I was startled to learn the 76 % of children born in Cleveland out of wedlock. fatherless boys we are told are much more likely to end up in jail, to fail in school, to become jobless.
A national tragedy you bet. If we wnt to fix America, here's a very good place to start.
I drew partly on my own experience as I wrote this story about “LeBron and Me” a while ago touching on this subject.. This is a slightly expanded and updated version that tells it as it is, or, at least, as it is for me.…
LeBron and Me
I felt an eerie, uneasy kinship with LeBron the other night as I watched him slowly, painfully walk off the court in Miami, in defeat in game six with Dallas in the NBA playoffs.
I wondered how he
really felt inside. This huge boy in a
man’s body, lifted by passion and athleticism to heights few mortals ever reach,
What are his inner
resources? To whom can he turn as he feels the pain of loss? Not to the man who
made his mother pregnant at age 16 and never returned.
I think I know something about that sense of loss. And the inability
to deal with it likes a “man”, so to speak.
Like LeBron, I grew up without a father. It was not good experience. This devastating loss of the man in your life
leaves a hole in you gut a mile wide. And it never really goes away. No matter how hard you try, on the basketball
court or on the courtyard of life.
