Like Father, Like Son

I am like my father,
And my grandfather before him.

I have a grown son—
Who is already old enough.

He is at the end of the line,
For I have no grandson after him.

After all is said, and all are gone;
Only this question remains.

Was he grateful—
To be his Father’s son?

“There is a powerful craving in most of us to see ourselves as instruments in the hands of others and thus free ourselves from the responsibility for acts that are prompted by our own questionable inclinations and impulses. Both the strong and the weak grasp at the alibi. The latter hide their malevolence under the virtue of obedience; they acted dishonorably because they had to obey orders. The strong, too, claim absolution by proclaiming themselves the chosen instrument of a higher power—God, history, fate, nation, or humanity. Pride is a sense of worth derived from something that is not part of us, while self-esteem derives from the potentialities and achievements of self. We are proud when we identify ourselves with an imaginary self, a leader, a holy cause, a collective body of possessions. There is fear and intolerance in pride; it is insensitive and uncompromising. The less promise and potency in the self, the more imperative is the need for pride. The core of pride is self-rejection.”
Quote from—Bruce Lee on Self-Actualization and the Crucial Difference Between Pride and Self-Esteem

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Bible, Ephesians 6:4