Many explanations are offered for the volatility of our present moment. Much of the discussion rightly focuses on economics, ideology, and technology.

Less often examined is what happens when formative roles weaken quietly over time. Fatherhood, at its best, is not primarily about authority or provision, but about the slow formation of restraint, responsibility, and judgment in another human being.

When that formative presence erodes gradually rather than dramatically, its absence is rarely obvious at first. It surfaces later, in places that seem unrelated.