I’ve been thinking about the men in my family over the past couple years. Specifically, I think about my grandfathers and great grandfathers. The man who brought both sides of my family over from China and Taiwan in search of the American Dream.
On my dad’s side, five men came over first. My grandfather, his older brother, his future brother-in-law (who was just a teen), his father-in-law, and my great grandfather. My grandfather was in his early 20’s. He and my grandmother were married in an arranged marriage, and he came over from China first to serve in WWII – fleeing the tyrannical Chinese regime.
On my mom’s side, my grandfather was raised in Japan controlled Taiwan. They also left because of Chinese oppression. Until his 80’s, he would travel back to Taiwan just to vote for the Taiwanese candidate, and until the day he passed, that was a big priority for him. They basically came over with nothing, but 4 kids and a lot of grit.
Reflecting back, these men were tough.
My parents describe my dad‘s father as a tyrant, and he was really tough on my dad growing up. My dad had limited freedoms. My grandfather would check the odometer just to make sure he never went beyond a specific mileage. My dad is largely a pathological pacifist today reflexively because he never wanted to become like his father.
My mom’s father was pretty stubborn. He barely understood what he was saying fully (he only spoke Taiwanese and Japanese), but I do know that he had strong opinions and made them known.
I never really saw these sides of them. My mom describes the birth of my older brother as a major change in my dad’s dad; an immediate softening, but never wavering on his strength.
I never feared them physically, but I always respected them… To this day, I see them both as huge influences on my life and my journey as a dad.
It would be totally untruthful if I were to say that I never acted like them. Especially over the past four years; recognizing how much was at stake for families who care about critical thinking, making conscious choices for our children, and who respect health and medical freedom.
I’ve shared on multiple platforms that the PTSD I largely healed from reemerged in the last couple years. My mom said something jarring to me about a year ago on how I reminded her of my dad’s father, and it really made me pause – the Tyrant. Me.
It made me pause for multiple reasons.
First, because I was triggering her. Of course, It makes me reflect on how this has affected my family, but to be behaving in such a way that it affected my own mom was gnarly to contemplate. I know for a fact that others noticed to some degree. I wasn’t a tyrant, but I can be loud, very direct, fierce, and about getting to the bottom of things.
Second, it made me pause because it gave me some context. I used to say early on in life that I would never know what it’s like to fight the level of oppression that my grandparents did; that we would not know the level of tyranny that led them to flee their home countries, yet here we are.
However, since 2020, we do know.
The communist and Marxist agendas that have basically taken over our federal, state, and local government is exactly what they fought. It’s quite remarkable what’s been normalized, celebrated, and paraded into society today. For someone who has been on the front lines in the movement for health freedom for longer than I have been in practice, it is refreshing to see the highest percentage of MEN in the crowds.
I have been a member of the Apogee Strong Dads program for 18 months now, and I was thinking about how profound this group is when compared to the many ‘freedom’ groups out there.
I can say with 100% confidence that I am a far better man, dad, and husband today than I was 18 months ago because of Apogee, and without sounding too braggadocious, I was already one of the good ones. It’s been a wild ride being a father during what I believe to be one of the most defining times in human history.
Men, unfortunately, have a default set point these days; mainly to isolate. We are inherently tribal as a species, and therefore as men, tribal leaders. The more we take on the responsibility of this role in our community, the more we heal as a species, but more importantly, individually.
I invite you to listen to the three most recent podcast interviews:
199: The Reclaimed Woman: Dismantling the Lie of Militant Feminism with Dr. Kelly Brogan MD
200: Reawakening the Warrior King through Rites of Passage with Andrew Genovese
201: Combatting Medical Kidnapping with Gail Macrae
Without getting too into the details of each of these episodes, I want you to know they are positioned intentionally. The topics of these interviews could not be more timely, significant, or crucial for all of us parents trying to protect our kids from the system attempting everyday to envelope them.
This is a call to action for men to step into a greater level of leadership of ourselves, our marriages, our families, and communities. It’s also a call to women to be continually more intentional about catalyzing the greatest expression of your family’s potential.
Part of stepping into a role of leadership and accepting greater responsibility is also realizing the need for self-care. In our practice, we see a lot of moms and kiddos, but dads – not as much. We would like to change that.
For the month of June, we are offering a special deal just for dads (but this can apply to anyone in the family). For the low price of $77, we can finally get dad in to receive the care he needs, so he can show up for his family as his best and strongest self. If you sign up for this deal, or you refer a dad, you will get entered into a raffle. We’ve got some awesome prizes lined up: a Yeti water bottle, Padres tickets for two, Courage is Calling by Ryan Holiday, and The Daily Dad by Ryan Holiday. You can get this incredible offer here.
You all, our FG family… inspire me to be better every day.
I couldn’t be more grateful.
Love and appreciate you all. ♥️
S