Welcome to the Daily Dad podcast where we provide one lesson every day to help you with your most important job being a dad.

These are lessons inspired by ancient philosophy, by practical wisdom, and insights from dads all over the world.

Thank you for listening, and we hope this helps.

This is your warrant.

What gives you the right?

What's your purpose on this planet? Why do you work so hard? Why do you fight for the causes you fight for? Why do you put up with all the crap you have to put up with in this life? You know why. It's because of that sleeping three-year-old in the other room. It's because of that 17-year-old who just texted you. It's because of those kids you brought into this world, those innocent, good-hearted boys and girls,

the ones who are so much better than you, so kind, so decent, so deserving of a better future.

In Cormick McCarthy's The Road, the Unnamed Father stares out over the wasteland that is his home.

He watches the son come up. He asks himself,

why does he keep going? What is the point of all this? Where is the hope? He knew only that the child

was his warrant, McCarthy writes. He said, if he is not the word of God, God never spoke. You have the same warrant in thankfully much less dire

circumstances, but it holds true. They are who you are carrying the fire for. This warrant,

like all authority comes with great responsibility. It's not an excuse. It's not a justification

for dream hoarding or selfishness or hypocrisy or any other abuses.

No, it's a second chance.

It's what you are put on this planet to do.

So do it.

Do it well.

Do it like the future depends on it because it does.

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