The local print news medium featured an article recently about a man, another man, his surrogate and a child. The story struck a chord for me as a community advocate and organizer, working to get father’s to be participatory in children’s lives, and at least, their academic lives.
There are billboards across Jamaica highlighting the definition of a “Man” as someone who takes care of his child. I would like to redact that and instead define a man as one who embraces accountability and responsibility. Accountability over the errors that people sometimes make because no one is above mistakes; responsibility over one’s own life and being a role model for others, whether your birth child or not.
The post colonial legacy to Jamaica and all former colonial holdings is a level of brokenness of family structure that has shuttled in a redefinition of family. To promote only taking care of one’s own child might send the wrong message in this reality. This news story expressed a single man’s story. It was heart-wrenching and heart-warming. A true success in my book. As a testament of his good works, the protagonist in the story will celebrate with his soon-to-be College graduate son. The flip side of the story highlighted the good deeds of a Step-Father who was accountable and responsible this very man’s son while he paid the price of making poor choices in his younger years. The embodiment of “paying it forward.” A great and positive reflection of ‘Manhood’.