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.

The fire is real.

The last pages of Cormick-McCarthes The Road are about the hardest thing a father will ever have

to read. The man is dying. He knows it. He knows it means leaving his boy alone, alone in a terrible

world. He knows he has just a few minutes left to teach to prepare his son for life without him.

What does he do? What does he say? The passage is worth quoting here in full.

I want to be with you, the boy says, you can't, please, you can't, you have to carry the fire.

I don't know how to. Yes, you do. Is it real the fire? Yes, it is. Where is it? I don't know where it is. Yes, you do. It's inside you. It was always there. I can see it.

The fire is real. The fire, as we've said, is goodness. It's all the things you've been trying to teach your kids since the moment you first met them. It can feel awkward sometimes. These little

platitudes you tell them, these books you read them. Even emails like this can seem a bit cheesy,

but there is a purpose to it. It's because one day they will face an enormous challenge,

the challenge of life, and you won't be there to help them. It's in that challenge that you'll need

them to believe in goodness, in the right thing, in the mission they're on, in themselves. You'll want

them to carry the fire, to light the darkness, to stay true. You'll need them to know that all

they need is already inside them and has been all along.

So tell them now while you still can't.

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