There’s Hallmark. There’s $H!@! My Dad Says. There are countless tees and bumper stickers and books and whatever else you can find with something witty, poignant or just plain asinine to say. If you’re a dad who has a hard time putting together the right words to say to your wife, or your son or daughter, the right words are out there. Let me caution you, that your actions will ALWAYS speak louder than your words but for whatever the reason, our children and our wives are wired so that many of them also need to hear the words. They need to hear, “I love you.” They may need to be shown AND told, “You’re number one in my life.” It just works out that way.
Fancying myself a writer, I actually have quite the fondness for the written word and specifically rousing monologues and speeches. A monologue or speech says so much about the writer and his or her state of mind and that always fascinates me. My favorite type of monologues are the ones which translate into motivational “pep talks.” I really like to hear a well written oratory meant to move people to action, or be the cheerleader and so imagine my sheer delight when I came across something called Kinetic Typography on YouTube. There are dozens of videos where quotes and rousing movie speeches have been turned into constantly moving text and I like them! So, for you guys out there who are movie buffs and speech geeks, I present to you, some of my favorite quotes in Kinetic Typography. Some of them you may want to share with your own sons and daughters…I know I will.
This first clip is self-explanatory.
Being a writer and a non profit business owner (especially being fairly new), this one hits home and is something I’ve told my children in my own way.
In many ways, I’ve often thought of myself as a “boy scout,” a crusader and so this next clip is personal for me in that way:
This next clip speaks to me about what happens when you’re the bad guys William Wallace found himself across the battlefield from in the previous clip. It speaks to what happens to people when you’ve oppressed them and tried to remove their free will. I consider myself a spiritual man and as much as there are many things in society that I don’t care for, we who believe in God from the Judeo-Christian understanding must never forget that God in His infinite wisdom blessed us with free will. We are autonomous and make our own decisions and taking that away from any other human being is, in itself, sacrilege. The character below is the by-product of such sacrilege.
This last one, for me, speaks to the primal instincts in all us dads. In our present society, we suppress some of our more visceral instincts because we must and it is indeed the right thing to do. We must learn and feed the part of us that is nurturing, empathetic, gentle and chivalrous! However, we must not also forget that when we were young, we wanted to slay dragons and be “army men” or cops and robbers or cowboys, or superheroes. We wanted to run off and fight the good fight and engage that part of our masculinity that is dangerous and death-defying. That part that yearns for a battle to be fought and won. Deep down, in the darkest recesses of our manhood, we all will one day ask ourselves and maybe others, “Am I good enough?” And, you know what that means. It doesn’t mean, “Was I a ‘good’ person?” What we’re really asking is, “Did I do better than myself?” When the chips were down and you felt beaten, like Rocky said in the first clip, did you continue to move forward? Did you best your own weakness. Your own fallibility. When you had nothing left to give and yet found that deep place and continued to give…did you obliterate that physical or emotional “wall” to the benefit of those around you. Those who matter. Did I overcome my weaknesses? Though, highly misguided, that’s what this last clip was about. Simply put, these eight rules below tapped into that dark place in our souls we don’t often discus: The warrior.