Leadership in Action: Inklings - Fathers, Sons, and Mutual Respect

Inklings: Fathers, Sons, and Mutual Respect

David P. Campbell

All men are sons of fathers; most men are fathers of sons. Consequently, the dynamics of the father-son relationship is a topic of universal interest, at least among males.

That thought was careening around in my head recently when I found myself in a peculiar, personal predicament. I was deep in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, standing on the edge of a fifteen-foot-high rock, looking down into a crystal clear trout pool; it was a warm summer afternoon, I was fully unclothed, and under insistent social pressure from below to jump in. Fifteen feet high looks higher from above than it sounds here, and my psychological anxiety was rapidly being translated into physiological indices—my ...