Dad-aissance

I'm feeling good about election season. 

Not for the campaign, which will no doubt feel like Chinese Water Torture for anyone who owns a TV, or a radio, or a computer or reads the newspapers or...has any contact with the outside world. 

And I'm very nervous about the actual election.  

But what I'm feeling good about is that for the first time in my life I'm part of an overlooked minority and we're getting our moment in the sun. 

Ever since Vice President Harris picked Tim Walz for her running mate, I've seen the groundswell building.  

I'm sensing a dad-aissance. 

Dads everywhere are feeling good, but in particular bald, chubby Dads from Minnesota. 

Is that my demographic or what? 

When you're the type of person who thinks the perfect graduation (and possibly wedding) gift is a set of jumper cables, you need to get used to a certain amount of ridicule. It doesn't change the way I act, but I admit the fact that modern society seems to think manhood is defined by either Homer Simpson or Superman tends to make me tired.  

Here's the deal. I'm kind of a guy, and I come by it honestly. Growing up, I was surrounded by men who treated women decently, men who by and large did what they said they'd do. If the church gutters needed to be cleaned or somebody was needed to build sets for the school play, they were on the job. Most of the men in my world worked blue collar jobs, but I knew plenty of preachers, teachers, and bankers I could respect as well, men with or without calluses. There's no glory in being a welder, a farmer, or the owner of small-town grocery store, but being a guy shouldn't be about glory anyway. It should be about doing your job well, being a good neighbor, and treating the people you meet with respect. It's about coming from a place where being called “a regular guy” was as good a compliment as you could hope for. 

I'm not sure when it happened, but at some point in my life, the regular guys disappeared from the larger world. Most of the men on TV were idiots who were led by the nose by the rest of the family or else were tough, ruthless brutes who tortured the spies and dumped the chicks. 

In real life, I saw all kinds of men that I could use as role models, but in books, movies, and public life, there just weren't very many who resonated with me. Particularly because, I have to admit, I am a sentimental goober. I always have been, and it's getting worse with age. My wife smiles when I start telling her a story and get choked up in the middle of it. I do take comfort in the words of General Schwarzkopf who was accused of being a sentimental goober himself and replied, “A man without any tears is a man without a heart.” 

I'm not telling you who to vote for. I hope you listened to the convention, both conventions, so you can judge for yourself. What I'm saying is that as a guy, it was nice to see someone on a big stage acting in a way that I understand, saying things that resonate with me. 

I don't know how the election is going to turn out but setting that aside, I predict there will be run on jumper cables and tire gauges when graduation season rolls around.  

It's about darn time.  

Copyright 2024 Brent Olson