You, Child, are Our Bond

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Daddy and His Girl

“And children seem to be a bond of union.” Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics

Moved by these words of Aristotle, I write here…
An Open Letter to My Child
Even your father can never tell you, because I cannot fully know, how good it is that you exist. You will ever be a mysterious wonder to me. Here is one thing, however, that I can tell you about yourself. You are a living bond. You bind me to your mother and your mother to me. By who you are; by your very existence.

You have not chosen this, nevertheless it is a truth about you. It is yours. And I cannot tell you how grateful I am.
It’s not because you look like both of us—though you do, and it always makes me smile.
It’s not because you act like both of us—which you do, sometimes in ways that make me blush.
It’s not because you love both of us—which is a gift beyond compare.
Perhaps it’s not even because we both love you—which we do with all our hearts.
I am not sure just why it is.

But this much I know: when I see you, I see not only you, but also your mother. No matter where you go, or what you do, your very existence will be a reminder, a sign of the gift that your mother has been to me, and that your mother and I have been one in love. And this is something no one can ever take from us, or from you.

Image: A daddy and his first daughter, a few years ago.

Aristotle (384-322 B.C.), student of Plato, tutor of Alexander the Great, has been considered by many to be the greatest ancient philosopher. The Nicomachean Ethics is his main moral treatise.

Originally posted at Bacon from Acorns

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John A. Cuddeback is a professor and chairman of the Philosophy Department at Christendom College in Front Royal, Virginia, where he has taught since 1995. He received a Ph.D. in Philosophy from The Catholic University of America under the direction of F. Russell Hittinger. He has lectured on various topics including virtue, culture, natural law, friendship, and household. His book Friendship: The Art of Happiness was republished in 2010 as True Friendship: Where Virtue Becomes Happiness. His writings have appeared in Nova et Vetera, The Thomist, and The Review of Metaphysics, as well as in several volumes published by the American Maritain Association. Though raised in what he calls an ‘archetypical suburb,’ Columbia, Maryland, he and his wife Sofia consider themselves blessed to be raising their six children in the shadow of the Blue Ridge on the banks of the Shenandoah. At the material center of their homesteading projects are heritage breed pigs, which like the pigs of Eumaeus are fattened on acorns, yielding a bacon that too few people ever enjoy. His website dedicated to the philosophy of family and household is baconfromacorns.com.

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