In spite of what the thermometer may say to the contrary, the calendar says summer wrapped up yesterday, and at our house it has been a season to remember, with the male side of the family providing the excitement of a college graduation, a wedding, a birth, a first home purchase and a military enlistment. That’s right. No more single guy fridge stories from the oldest, and no more not noticing that troublesome “boots on the ground” phrase in the news, either.

In the midst of so much momentous, I couldn’t help but put my thoughts down on paper. So here it is, Guys, an open message from the mother ship.

Because sometimes a text just won’t do.

Dear Men of Mine,

Congratulations on your recent (fill in the blank).

Watching from the sidelines as you’ve taken on new responsibilities has gotten me thinking, and I’ve come to an old and borrowed conclusion: the world sure could use a few good men.

We have quite enough that are content to leave things undone, leave their wives holding the bag and leave their kids to raise themselves. What we need, Sons, are men who are inclined to stay – like through the thick and thin you and all those other grooms promise up there in front of the preacher.

We could stand a new crop of the hardy sort, men who are willing to do something radical and forsake the instant for the overall. We need this because the truth is, Guys, we’re downright desperate for dads who will turn off their iPods, iPads, iPhones and iSelf and tune into their families.

It’s really not rocket science. We just need some regular fellows with old-fashioned good sense who know the value of a good name and know how to tell their daughters, “No, you may not wear that.”

We need men who get choked up when the national anthem plays – men who feel indebted to this country rather than entitled by it. We need new heroes to stand behind the Constitution, stand against redefining the divinely defined and stand up for the unborn. Put simply, we need some men that understand there are indeed borders worth protecting, and they aren’t all in Arizona.

We already have plenty who can quote stock prices and the latest CMA hit and the State-LSU score and hunting season dates. The question is, where are the ones who can quote (and try to keep) the Ten Commandments?

Because these babies that you’re rocking today, Sons – they’ll need daddies who can find their tongues and tell them the important things loud and clear. Otherwise, all they’ll hear is a hookup generation telling them sex isn’t sacred, and a media telling them to become so open-minded their brains fall out. They’ll need you to turn up the volume on some other basics we seem to have forgotten, too – like how a good work ethic fits longer than a letter jacket, and that debt can be a four-letter word.

So Sons of Mine, remember that this letter comes from a mother’s heart (a stronger organ than you know), one that understands that when a society believes “boys will be boys”, it can be hard for men to be men. But you were raised to do hard things, and there’s a plain truth today that simply can’t be denied: the world sure could use a few good men.

Wesson resident Kim Henderson is a freelance writer who writes for The Daily Leader. Contact her at kimhenderson319@gmail.com.