The great thing about family is that you've got people supporting you who will always have your back. When the chips are down and you're feeling rough, you can depend on your closest relations to lend a helping hand. Blood's thicker than water after all. This support can come from anyone: a brother or a sister, a parent or grandparent, even from a loving aunt, uncle or cousin. There have been a fair few times in the past when my uncle has helped me get out of a jam.
If you want an example of a heroic uncle, meet David Pendragon. He looks like quite an ordinary guy, right? More Clark Kent than Superman. But to his young nephew, he's the dude who stood up for him when he needed him most and made a simple but brilliant statement against toxic masculinity. This is his story.
A few months ago, David took to Facebook to tell his friends and followers that his young nephew was being abused by bullies, who made his life miserable because he went to school with a '"girly" pink lunchbox. Kids can be cruel as we all know, but sometimes all it takes is a positive example from a responsible adult to snap them out of it.
Enter David, who wrote:
"My cousin, Emily, has a 10 year old son named Ryker. Ryker, who loves cats, was very excited to get his new lunchbox. Unfortunately because of its colours, or because it has cats, or both he was teased about it by other boys in his class. He even wanted to stop taking his lunch so he wouldn't be teased about it any longer. I have decided, however, to stand with my little cousin and show him that a man can love whatever he wants and not be afraid to express that love.
"So I have ordered the same lunchbox for myself and proudly carried it to work today at my large, conservative, corporate workplace. I've told anyone who asked the story behind my lunchbox and to a person, they all stand with Ryker too. There's no one way to be a man. Men can be colorful. Men can be expressive. Men can be emotional and silly and gleeful. I love my new lunchbox and I hope Ryker and all the other boys out there can see that their passion and self-expression is never something to be ashamed of."
David's heartwarming post quickly went viral, and picked up more than 148,000 likes and over 60,000 shares on Facebook. In fact, some of the commenters were so inspired by David's gesture, that they did the same themselves, and began buying similar lunch boxes and posting the pictures of them to Pendragon’s Facebook. Wow! We could all do with someone like David in our lives, and personally, I think he deserves to win an uncle of the year award for his kindness and decency.
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