Do you ever play that game with your kids when you get that twinkle in your eye and you move toward them slowly and poised like a tiger about to pounce? They giggle and anticipate you "getting them". They want to be "got". The movement is primal and recognized by your children. Daddy is mimicking a wild beast come to eat me up, but he will blow on my belly instead and tickle me.

What is it about this primal movement that brings them such joy? I'll get to that, but let's look at it first from the negative victim mentality mindset that say a killjoy no fun having social justice warrior would see it from. You are simulating the stalking, assaulting, murdering, and canibalizing your child. You must have a dark evil deep in your heart to teach them this is acceptable, right? Wrong. Completely wrong. You're teaching them to laugh in death's face so that instead of freezing in fear they react. And dads all over the world play this game like it's genetically encoded into them even when they don't understand the sentiment behind it.

Learning to laugh in the face of death and using that adrenaline to fight back instead of just giving in is a hard lesson. So why laughter? Because you are investing into them, engaging them, and teaching them in a way that excludes fear. Both your own fear and their fear. This is why we have a playful nature that disolves fear and kills doubt, because even though we know the training might not work and our offspring may perish, as we give them a fighting chance. That masculine energy you have within you should be cultivated, because there's no other way your children will stand their ground instead of cowering in the face of adversity. And remember this lesson if you ever find yourself despising the handsome and charming rogue who fearlessly takes on those who seem to outmatch him. That playful spirit and mountain of confidence makes him a deadly adversary to even the most heralded and noble of knights.

Through that roguish warmth and charm we shape those around us. They start to mimick us and learn to be the tiger instead of its prey. They learn to abandon fear and find their vast potential instead, because greatness is contagious by association. We pull people in through our magnetism and their survivability increases. This is why we do not fixate on bettering them but bettering ourselves, and everything and everyone else follows suit. Let me leave you with this quote.

"Character occurs most reliably when the heart is warmed, when we come into contact with people we admire and love and we conciously and unconciously bend our lives to mimic theirs."

-David Brooks

(history won't remember how "serious" you claimed to be or your "intent", it'll remember how you changed the world around you by your actions. Apply this to everything.)