A letter from Ronald Reagan to his son, Mike, 1971
Dear Mike:
Enclosed is the item I mentioned (with which goes a torn up IOU). I could stop here but I won’t.
You’ve heard all the jokes that have been rousted around by all the “unhappy marrieds” and cynics. Now, in case no one has suggested it, there is another viewpoint. You have entered into the most meaningful relationship there is in all human life. It can be whatever you decide to make it. Some men feel their masculinity can only be proven if they play out in their own life all the locker-room stories, smugly confident that what a wife doesn’t know won’t hurt her. The truth is, somehow, way down inside, without her ever finding lipstick on the collar or catching a man in the flimsy excuse of where he was till three A.M., a wife does know, and with that knowing, some of the magic of this relationship disappears. There are more men griping about marriage who kicked the whole thing away themselves than there can ever be wives deserving of blame. There is an old law of physics that you can only get out of a thing as much as you put in it. The man who puts into the marriage only half of what he owns will get that out.
Sure, there will be moments when you will see someone or think back to an earlier time and you will be challenged to see if you can still make the grade, but let me tell you how really great is the challenge of proving your masculinity and charm with one woman for the rest of your life. Any man can find a twerp here and there who will go along with cheating, and it doesn’t take all that much manhood. It does take quite a man to remain attractive and to be loved by a woman who has heard him snore, seen him unshaven, tended him while he was sick and washed his dirty underwear. Do that and keep her still feeling a warm glow and you will know some very beautiful music. If you truly love a girl, you shouldn’t ever want her to feel, when she sees you greet a secretary or a girl you both know, that humiliation of wondering if she was someone who caused you to be late coming home, nor should you want any other woman to be able to meet your wife and know she was smiling behind her eyes as she looked at her, the woman you love, remembering this was the woman you rejected even momentarily for her favors.
Mike, you know better than many what an unhappy home is and what it can do to others. Now you have a chance to make it come out the way it should. There is no greater happiness for a man than approaching a door at the end of a day knowing someone on the other side of that door is waiting for the sound of his footsteps.
Love,
DadP.S. You’ll never get in trouble if you say “I love you” at least once a day.
Dutch knew it both ways, and he knew how lucky he was that his second try worked out.
Both of my late wives were as fine persons as was my pleasure to know. Perfect? Nope, flawed as any Fallen Angel is. But good women. We were also the very best of friends.
Tips bush hat Heavenward
spins- still pretty good for an old guy
and turns, into the Twilight….
What a man.
An often overlooked necessity for a happy match.
That picture is so sweet.
A Belated ‘Happy Valentines Day’
Picture swiped from a post by Darleen Click. –
Bob Highly Recommends: Wisdom and class by @DarleenClick #RonaldReagan
Wisdom and class [Darleen Click] | protein wisdom.
Can’t imagine many Democratic Party leadership types who could pull off penning something like that and really mean it.
But I have heard one of ’em say he’d like to never see one of his daughters punished with a baby.
– I’d not like to see any baby punished by having his daughter for a reluctant motha.
– The Panderer in chief don’t take kindly when anyone else beats his game.
– Can anybody else remember any President that had to hold “closed session” mews conferences?
– I hate to have to admit it, but the dorks in my ancestrial home are a bunch of petty sour losers. Of course in the Rodina losing in anything to Americans is a cardinal sin, but losing in hockey is right up there nest to voting Republican.
– ….and they’re full of shit as well in this case. The cage was off its anchors by almost a foot, so no goals can be scored when thats the case by international rules that guide the Olympics, and the Russkies know it as well as anyone, which, you know, just makes any win against them that much sweeter.
There are more games to go, so they can really be obnoxious if they take it home.
I’ll be unpopular and say I think the Russians are doing a very nice job with the Olympic Games, although you’d never hear it from the networks. Last night was the first time Al Michaels didn’t look constipated.
– Ole Al has looked constipated since 1960, but yeah. The really good news is they might meet again before its over, which could very well save the entire under-watched, over hyped mess for NBC.
– Good news comes in three’s. *spoiler alert*
– *
– Oshie takes Sochi!
I was reading a contrary view of the Games the other day comparing the venue at Sochi to: Vancouver, Sarajevo, et al, and making mention that they are all located in the southern climes of their respective countries and share similar latitudes (within a reasonable variance) to each other. The point being that the kvetching about Sochi being so far south, is bullshit.
I have to say I’m disappointed in the memememe attitude of a lot our athletes. I expect ego, but dude. Sportsmanship would be nice, too. Some of them are very gracious, but a few are over shadowing the rest with their carping about conditions of the tracks, rinks, what have you. The Games may be underwatched here, but the venues are full and the tourists seem to be having a good time.
Good on Vlad for waxing would be terrorists before they could pull a Munich at Sochi, too.
http://patdollard.com/2014/02/mitch-mcconnell-every-time-weve-faced-a-crisis-im-the-one-who-solved-it/
Hard to imagine Dutch ever saying something like that.
Impossible, even.
– One of Dutches fav sayings would fit here: “Success has a thousand fathers, failure is always an orphan.”
– I’d like to have a buck for every Reagan age synchophant that tries to take credit for this or that concerning the only real pres we’ve had since Eisenhower.
– Leigh, does that pic of Oshie remind you of anyone? Thought it was fitting it was sponsored by Cruise Lines. *snort*
His girl looks like Anna Kournikova. Him? I think he’s trying too hard.
– Better built than Tom, thats for sure.
Tom Cruise is one of those. IFYKWIMAITTYD.
The whole time I watched Jack Reacher it felt like Tom Cruise was showing off his Scientology “confront” skills rather than acting. I liked the movie but I liked it AROUND Cruise rather than because of him.
I liked Oblivion though. I think that ever now and then, America deserves to treat itself to a big budget feature length Outer Limits episode that pastiches several sci-fi tropes into a big happy blob of stuff. Also I like the idea of Apple designing military hardware like the iJet-VTOL and iKillProbe.
[…] Dear Mike: Enclosed is the item I mentioned (with which goes a torn up IOU). I could stop here but I won’t. You’ve heard all the jokes that have been rousted around by all the “unhappy marrieds” and cynics. Now, in case no one has suggested it, there is another viewpoint. You have entered into the most meaningful relationship there is in all human life. It can be whatever you decide to make it. Some men feel their masculinity can only be proven if they play out in their own life all the locker-room stories, smugly confident that what a wife doesn’t know won’t hurt her. The truth is, somehow, way down inside, without her ever finding lipstick on the collar or catching a man in the flimsy excuse of where he was till three A.M., a wife does know, and with that knowing, some of the magic of this relationship disappears. There are more men griping about marriage who kicked the whole thing away themselves than there can ever be wives deserving of blame. There is an old law of physics that you can only get out of a thing as much as you put in it. The man who puts into the marriage only half of what he owns will get that out. Sure, there will be moments when you will see someone or think back to an earlier time and you will be challenged to see if you can still make the grade, but let me tell you how really great is the challenge of proving your masculinity and charm with one woman for the rest of your life. Any man can find a twerp here and there who will go along with cheating, and it doesn’t take all that much manhood. It does take quite a man to remain attractive and to be loved by a woman who has heard him snore, seen him unshaven, tended him while he was sick and washed his dirty underwear. Do that and keep her still feeling a warm glow and you will know some very beautiful music. If you truly love a girl, you shouldn’t ever want her to feel, when she sees you greet a secretary or a girl you both know, that humiliation of wondering if she was someone who caused you to be late coming home, nor should you want any other woman to be able to meet your wife and know she was smiling behind her eyes as she looked at her, the woman you love, remembering this was the woman you rejected even momentarily for her favors. Mike, you know better than many what an unhappy home is and what it can do to others. Now you have a chance to make it come out the way it should. There is no greater happiness for a man than approaching a door at the end of a day knowing someone on the other side of that door is waiting for the sound of his footsteps. Love, DadP.S. You’ll never get in trouble if you say “I love you” at least once a day. – See more at: https://proteinwisdom.com/?p=52700#sthash.F49CUBza.dpuf […]