Has the role of what it means to be a father changed? Considering how the roles of mothers have changed, with so many single moms, I'd day it has. It had to, after all. The best way I can explain is to share a true story with you.

Three years ago, I witnessed an amazing thing in a hospital maternity ward. A young man picked up his new born son and gazed into his eyes so lovingly, like he could see through a mother's eyes. I wondered who he was, but he seemed mysteriously familiar to me. It might have been intuition that told me this young and new dad had no father role model to understand the concept of what his society and life had told him a dad was supposed to be. He couldn't have.

I'd never seen a father cradle a baby like that. I understood the expression on his face and the look in his eyes as those a mother has, but a dad? Somehow I knew this young man was never held and cradled that way by his dad. He couldn't have been, because if it had been true, then why did tears come to his eyes, as if longing to share the moment with the only man he wanted to hold him in the way he held his son.

The next time I saw this young man, he was changing the babies diaper. The diaper was a mess, obviously, but this young man didn't seem to mind at all. He simply made funny faces to the six month old son and they both laughed so hard it became contagiously infectious. The laugh seemed familiar to me, but I still couldn't imagine who he's be.

The only father's I ever knew couldn't do what this young dad so easily did. The most amazing part to me was that he seemed to enjoy parenting the son who obviously loved him so much. I'd heard through the grapevine that this young man even stopped playing golf. They said if you knew him, you'd know what a sacrifice that was. No one loved the sport more than he did, they said. Who they were, I can't recall, but I knew all about golf.

I'd been a golf widow and knew how many hours in a day it takes to play. I also knew from experience what the sport takes away from the sons of the golfer. I suppose this young man understands the concept of time. He knows that there are only twenty-four hours of time in a day to spend with a child. Of course, at least the child has to sleep, so how many hours does that leave? I guess this young guy knows how to tell time better than some dads do. It's either that, or he simply knows that human beings are more valuable than his need for competition.

At the baby's

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