Dead Poets Society and the Father Who Never Listened
September 7, 2026
Well brethren, it’s fall — and I gotta tell you, it’s my favorite time of the year. The evenings get darker, the colors turn and we get to bust out our smart-looking jackets or cozy hoodies. It’s a good time to be alive.
I took my family on a trip to Yellowstone last week. I am as un-traveled as you can get, a true homebody, so I simply didn’t know that such awe-inspiring things could exist in our reality. However I’ve been haunted by a recent quote from Jung that is still kicking around in my head:
“Nothing has a stronger influence psychologically on their environment, and especially on their children, than the unlived life of the parent.” — Jung
Jeez.
So I’ve been trying to live my life more and that meant this month carting everyone up to Yellowstone to see some of the once-in-a-lifetime-for-almost-everyone-but-those-who-live-close-like-me spectacles that should make you introspect deeply on the vastness of God’s creation and our minuscule part we play. And boy did it not disappoint. It felt like our car had just rolled right into Middle Earth. The colors, the geysers, the “unlikely” (but definitely not impossible) chance of the whole place blowing sky high at any second was a certain thrill that you’ll never be able to replicate elsewhere. Mammoth hot springs and Porcelain Basin especially reminded me of Mordor — what Tolkien envisioned Sam and Frodo were walking.
So if you ever get hit with that age-old icebreaker question reserved for company retreats or cheap podcasts and someone asks you “If you could go back in time, who would you meet”, trust me on this one — you want to take Tolkien to Yellowstone. He’d be like a kid in a candy shop, and we’d get a whole other trilogy I’m sure.
Oh, and this week’s essay pick, shared down below, comes from Men of the West — one of my favorite authors on Substack. Go show him some love.
And as always, if you need someone to talk to, reach out to me, I'm sometimes slow but will respond, cross my heart.
Or jump into our discord and chat with us there, all dads welcome.
Film of the week
The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Dir. Peter Jackson · 2h 58m
All I’ll say about The Fellowship of the Ring is this — when watching it as a Father, it’s important to accept the fact that you aren’t Frodo — not anymore. Maybe you never related to Frodo, that’s possible. But as a Father your role has changed and you aren’t the main character anymore. Your children are.
Watch Gandalf, Aragorn, Boromir (not Legolas & Gimli, they only give serious uncle vibes), Theoden or Denethor — watch the mentors, fathers and kings. That’s your lens from which you should see the world, and the time where you risk everything you have for the shot that your child can succeed and survive this world is coming quickly, if not already here.
Sage wisdom
Audentes fortuna iuvat.
Fortune favors the bold.
— Virgil, Aeneid
Worth your time
Men of the West
The Strongest Thing in Middle-earth
Tolkien wrote thousands of pages about power, and the answer to “what's actually strongest?” turns out not to be the Ring, the wizards, or the armies — it's the stubborn bond between companions who won't let each other walk into the dark alone. Pairs perfectly with the film. Read it, then go text the group chat — that's an order.
All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.
— J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
This was the Dads Need Friends weekly letter for September 24, 2026. Want the next one in your inbox? Subscribe on the homepage.
