Kate Seredy and Real Men
A few weeks ago I started out the Christmas season by rereading one of my favourite Christmassy children's novels, A Murder for Her Majesty by Beth Hilgartner (yay for mittens and a girl named Pup!). Today it was time for another: Kate Seredy's The Good Master. If you've read it already and don't understand why this is a Christmas book, you've obviously forgotten that the last two chapters are all about Christmas--Hungarian Christmas complete with Mikulas. It helped get me in the Christmas spirit just a little bit more (and then we took the boys and the dog to see Christmas lights which completed the job).
Anyway, as I was reading it I got all excited about sharing it with the boys when they get older. They have such a great role model in their dad already (and their grandfathers and uncles, for that matter), but fictional male role models are so important, and Marton Nagy is one of the best. He teaches true leadership, discipline, laughter, and, above all, gentle grace--this is what it means to be a real man. I hope my boys pay attention and learn this early on, avoiding the cultural traps that have led to a generation of more than a few weak, spineless men who think that to be strong they have to be bullies and to be respected they have to be louder than everyone else. I'm so glad that Littles and Tiny will grow up surrounded by men who can both teach and model true manliness, and I plan to ply them with good books to reinforce the lesson. The Good Master is one of them, closely followed by its sequel The Singing Tree. If you have boys, are a boy, or are married to a man who used to be a boy, Kate Seredy is always worth a read.
Anyway, as I was reading it I got all excited about sharing it with the boys when they get older. They have such a great role model in their dad already (and their grandfathers and uncles, for that matter), but fictional male role models are so important, and Marton Nagy is one of the best. He teaches true leadership, discipline, laughter, and, above all, gentle grace--this is what it means to be a real man. I hope my boys pay attention and learn this early on, avoiding the cultural traps that have led to a generation of more than a few weak, spineless men who think that to be strong they have to be bullies and to be respected they have to be louder than everyone else. I'm so glad that Littles and Tiny will grow up surrounded by men who can both teach and model true manliness, and I plan to ply them with good books to reinforce the lesson. The Good Master is one of them, closely followed by its sequel The Singing Tree. If you have boys, are a boy, or are married to a man who used to be a boy, Kate Seredy is always worth a read.
