Agape: Lessons from My Father

By M. R. Pickard

Author M. R. Pickard spent years collecting thoughts and ideas, storing them away in the back of her filing cabinet in a nondescript manila folder labelled BOOK. Years of staring into the faces of her studentsteenage boys in desperate need of good male role modelsinspired her to jot down one jewel of wisdom after another. Channelling her late father, Ronald Ernest John Pickard, she has always endeavoured to display the qualities most in need of sharing while in the classroom. Now shes ready to transcend the classroom and share the lessons she learned from her beloved father with the world.

As they ever have, young men today need answers to important questions. What does it mean to be a man? What are the effects of pornography on men, women, and children? Why is there suffering in the world? How do we fall in love with God? For most young men, these are questions that they will never ask. The answers lie in the actions of their role models.

In todays age, it can be challenging to make sure children are exposed to positive male role models. Pickard, who is an author, artist, and secondary school teacher, bore witness to this deficit daily in her years at the head of a classroom. Breathing life into the profound lessons she learned from her late father, she now offers parents and caretakers a resource for helping show todays young men how to live lives of true greatness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press AU
• Release date: Mar 31, 2014
• ISBN: 9781452513645

M. R. Pickard

M. R. Pickard is an artist and secondary school teacher who has also worked in the corporate world. Born in Australia, Pickard travelled throughout Europe and now resides in the northern beaches of Wollongong. She has practiced meditation for over twenty years and has a strong interested in personal healing.

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Copyright © 2014 M. R. Pickard.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4525-1362-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4525-1364-5 (e)

Balboa Press rev. date: 08/13/2014

Contents

Preface

Chapter 1 Not Another Faustian Age!

Chapter 2 Corporations: Good Or Evil?

Chapter 3 Marketing And The Media: The Erosion Of The Soul

Chapter 4 Pornography: Its Effects On Men, Women, And Children

Chapter 5 The Importance Of Marriage In Society Today

Chapter 6 Why We Need Religion

Chapter 7 Suffering

Chapter 8 How To Die

Chapter 9 Agape: How Do We Fall In Love With God?

Chapter 10 Agape: How Do We Love In A Contemporary World?

Chapter 11 Truthism

Postscript

Bibliography

About the Author

Ronald Ernest John Pickard, 13 May, 1929, to 8 March, 2011: I love you, Dad. I miss you every day.

To my senior students of years gone by (too many to mention), and to my class of 2012, I am forever grateful.

To Rhys Bouwman, Gerard Bryant, Jordan Daly, Lachlan Fraser, Matthew Hart, Matthew Henson, Stuart Jackson, Jack Johnson, Jack Kennedy, Ayden Lamont, Mitchell Lynch, Thomas Murray, Benjamin Norman, Christopher Peppernell, Michael Romero, William Satara, William Smith, Regan Suters, Harrison Sykes, Joseph Zhu, the ‘ring-ins’ Antonio Inzitario, Ryan Beneke, Mitchell Gough, Luke Bonnell, Adam Elliot. Also to Jo Kaio, Kyle Weh, Tom Sutherland, Cameron McFadyen, and finally, to my three adorable Joshuas, Joshua Hughes, Joshua Cullen, and Joshua Henderson.

Thank you Louise Millar.

Preface

Going through the process of watching my father die, I began to understand how much of an influence he had been on my life, my choices and my reactions to those choices. He didn’t force his opinions on me in any way and he did not interfere with my decisions. However he was there to love me, encourage me to be whatever I wanted to be, and to catch me when I fell. I know somewhere deep down he was my motivation to teach boys and give them the same guidance that he had given me. I am a senior teacher of boys aged around sixteen to eighteen. When I stand in front of a classroom of young men, I find myself wishing that Dad was there. He would have made a great teacher.

Reflecting on my past and piecing together the path I have chosen, I find myself wondering how different I am now, middle aged, from eighteen-year-old males today. Are they really all that scary? Or do they share the same hopes and desires that I had all those years ago? I wonder if they have a moral compass—or are they merely meandering through their days with a radar device to serve only one purpose: avoiding getting hurt?

The conclusion I arrive at is simple. They are the same as I was all those years ago, with their angst, passion, ambition, and lust for life. And they too will journey through their lives looking out into the world to find themselves, making all kinds of discoveries, only to eventually turn back to themselves and come home.

If there is one thing I would say to them at this moment, it would be, My father showed me the meaning of life. If you want to know what it is… read on.

Please listen to or watch the official video of the songs, when they are mentioned, throughout the book.

CHAPTER 1

Not Another Faustian Age!

Wake Me Up, Avicci

I Want It All, Queen

Ah, Goethe’s Faust. This is, no doubt, one of the greatest literary pieces ever written. Goethe took sixty years to write Faust, starting in 1770, and he died one year after it was published in 1831. It has been the centrepiece of many philosophical studies, movies, musical scores, and novels. The work is fantastic, as it not only shows the development of a man but also the development of a society. It parallels Goethe’s reaction to the changes in society that were going on around him as he slowly developed Faust’s character. Ultimately, Goethe’s Faust is a study of man from youth to death. There have been many different analytical interpretations, which have merit. But the beauty of the book is that it is a living masterpiece, that is open to interpretations that change as society changes.

The novel is set from the turn of the eighteenth to the nineteenth century. It deals with the powerful upheaval of the world during the time of the Industrial Revolution. Boring! What’s this got to do with eighteen-year-old males today? I hear you ask. Well, the parallels between the Industrial Revolution and today’s Technological Revolution are uncanny. They are full of sex and power, a real lust for life, a no-holds-barred YOLO (you only live once, for those not up on all acronyms) mentality. Today I can see a generation of Faustian young men, and who would blame them? Certainly not I.

Marshall Berman examines