Choir Notes

Renaissance Men
From Music and the Spoken Word
Delivered By: Lloyd D. Newell • Program 4214

From time to time we hear great artists or athletes described as “Renaissance men.” Society marvels at the variety of their accomplishments—a football player who also excels as a musician or a writer who can also paint.

We admire people who can switch hats and shine in more than one arena. But in our quest to find the next celebrity multitasker, we often overlook countless Renaissance men who are closer to home.

The real treasures of our society are the dads who wear multiple hats every day of their lives, even when they’re tired after a long day at work. Our world is made better by these kinds of men—men who can work a jackhammer one minute and caress a baby the next. Men who can split a log yet mend a heart. Men who can be tenacious at the office in the morning, yet be found teetering on a tiny chair and sipping from a tiny cup at their young daughter’s teddy bear tea party that evening.

Great fathers listen, guide, love, and laugh, forging a sacred bond with their children that will last for generations. Such men put family first and understand that their role extends far beyond providing. In the process, they show their families what it means to be a real man. No one can fill this heroic role quite like a loving father.

If you ask them how they do it, they’ll simply say they’re average guys with average lives. But in the eyes of their children, they are heroes, men who can stand as strong as mighty oaks yet share a gentle breeze and the squeeze of a little hand. These are the real Renaissance men, and they are all around us: fathers whose children matter most of all.