I have never heard him be vulgar. I have never heard him be crude. If you hurt him, he will forgive you, pray for you, and move on. If you think that gentleman are no more, you need to know: there is one cavalier left.
We can still make gentlemen like Daniel Reynolds.
Why should you care?
Good parenting matters and good parenting begins in letting your kids grow up.
Daniel is a thinker, an innovator. Sometimes these types go awry, becoming those who tear down culture and are not builders. Thanks to his parenting, tolerant, thoughtful, joyful and intent on creating adults, Daniel is creative and independent. He can agree with his parents without being a slave to their opinions. He is that rare and remarkable man: conservative with no trace of reaction.
He took good parenting and make a good life from that parenting.
We can still make such men.
If a man always wins, then people come and praise him hoping to catch the glow. Daniel wins by enduring the storm. If people cheat him, and people in the academy have cheated him, then Daniel forgives, reads a book, and teaches a student. He is not distracted from service by anger or a desire for vindication.
America has her problems, but liberty (God deliver us from freedom) can make greatness. That is a reason for hope.
People and Principles Matter More than Pragmatics.
I have seen Daniel under fire and he has always chosen people over what would benefit himself. He will not “win” if winning entails betraying the principles that he believes are true. He has chosen the better way when the lesser way would have been more fun. And because of this he is good, sound, and of great worth.
Whenever I read O. Henry’s Gift of the Magi and Della looks for a gift worthy of Jim and finally finds it, I think of Daniel:
It was a platinum fob chain simple and chaste in design, properly proclaiming its value by substance alone and not by meretricious ornamentation–as all good things should do.
If this is an age where flash and cash matter more than knowledge, where abusive posers get academic appointments, while true scholars are left in exile, then Daniel shows it does not matter. He remains platinum, unmoved, proclaiming his value by substance alone. He has no meretricious ornamentation, just sound ideas.
Daniel is the British pound in 1895.
Daniel is loyal.
If you hit the bottom, your best buddy and lifelong pal better be there or you are doomed. When I did badly, hit the bottom, and had few friends, I never doubted Daniel, who would never have dreamed of making my errors, would be there. He was loyal. Bad people will stab you in the back, picking winning over friendship. Daniel will pick you over your errors. He will wait to see if you will make right choices and encourage you if he can.
There are few, vanishingly few, people who are loyal in the right way. Daniel never approved of my badness, but he loved me. That is the right way to be a man, friend, and brother.
Today my friend, my best man, my brother has his birthday. I love you, Daniel, I take hope that you are alive: best friend and lifelong pal.
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