A tale of two fathers
Steve Lambert, Editor
Article Launched: 08/02/2008 04:43:23 PM PDT


I dropped by recently to visit my friend Hardy Brown and walked away with another of those life lessons this great sage always seems to lay on me.
If you don't know, Hardy is co-publisher - along with his wife Cheryl - of the Black Voice News and, fittingly, possesses one of the most reasoned voices in our community.

Though the words have been slowed by illness - Hardy suffers from a lesser form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease - the passion and meaning behind them is as strong as ever. Ask anyone who has been skewered by one of his biting commentaries, which brings me to his story - of a childhood in North Carolina, his basement sleeping quarters and a large ominous pipe overhead.

While those of us more fortunate had our cozy bedrooms, Hardy slept in the cellar, under an old pipe he was certain was about to collapse on him.

His father reassured him it wouldn't - that he'd hung countless pipes like that and could tell it was plenty sturdy.

Years went by, Hardy got married and the story came up. Only this time, his father had a different take, telling Cheryl that he, too, worried about that hated pipe.

Ahhh, Hardy thought to himself. That's what fathers do. They provide a sense of security and fearlessness, no matter how afraid they themselves might be.

As we talked more - about the economy, the election, the problems of Operation Phoenix - the point of his story became more and more apparent.


We live in scary times. Sometimes we handle it well. Sometimes not so well.

On a bigger scale, the greatest of leaders know how to reassure us - to keep us focused on the "fix," not the problem.

Closer to home, those of us with families need to do the same - to stop hiding behind our fears and give our children the sense of security only we can provide.

I know few people who embody that more than my friend Hardy. As ill as he is, he shows up for work every day and continues to provide a strong leadership voice through his columns and editorials.

I'm sure he is afraid of that figurative pipe hanging over his head these days, but he doesn't show it. Not to his readers. Not to the community he has devoted a big part of his life to. Most of all, not to his family.

That's what fathers do.


http://www.sbsun.com/living/ci_10080155