THE FRIDAY ROUND-UP!

Every Friday we bring you the Friday Round-Up in partnership with DadTrends.com, a soon-to-be-released companion site to TheFatherLife.com! Cool stuff worth passing along… Enjoy this week’s roundup! And have a great weekend! -TFL

SPORTS: BUFFALO BILLS ROOKIE JOHNSON PREFERS BEING A FAMILY MAN (D&C)

“Steve Johnson takes the good-intentioned ribbing with the easy nature that he is blessed with. Some of his teammates don’t understand why, at the tender age of 22, the magnificently dreadlocked wide receiver with the Hollywood good looks is so content to already be married to his high school sweetheart and be the father of a 1-year-old daughter. Instead of clubbing with the boys when the Buffalo Bills get a free night, he’s home hanging out with his wife, Britney, and changing daughter Miyah’s diapers. “Some of the guys tease me, but I just say, ‘Y’all would like to be like this,'” he says with a smile that could light up the darkest, dankest winter night in western New York.”

IDEAS: MAKING CAPITALISM MORE CREATIVE (Time)

“Capitalism has improved the lives of billions of people — something that’s easy to forget at a time of great economic uncertainty. But it has left out billions more. They have great needs, but they can’t express those needs in ways that matter to markets. So they are stuck in poverty, suffer from preventable diseases and never have a chance to make the most of their lives. Governments and nonprofit groups have an irreplaceable role in helping them, but it will take too long if they try to do it alone. It is mainly corporations that have the skills to make technological innovations work for the poor. To make the most of those skills, we need a more creative capitalism: an attempt to stretch the reach of market forces so that more companies can benefit from doing work that makes more people better off. We need new ways to bring far more people into the system — capitalism — that has done so much good in the world.”

MUSIC: BECK, MODERN GUILT REVIEW (Rolling Stone)

“Welcome to Beck’s midlife spiritual crisis. As he nears his 40th birthday, his hair has grown as long as the Maharishi’s. The BFFs on his MySpace Top Eight include Aristotle, father of metaphysics. And he’s never addressed a higher power as directly as he does on his 10th album. Modern Guilt finds him questioning what the soul is made of, wondering if his prayers can be answered and generally putting himself through the karmic rehab required for understanding the Supreme Being. On the opener, “Orphans,” he even imagines that, if God exists, he might be due for a visit. “If I wake up and see my maker coming,” Beck sings, “with all of his crimson and his iron desire/We’ll drag the streets with the baggage of longing/To be loved or destroyed/From a void to a grain of sand in your hand.””

FATHERHOOD: RUN DMC FOUNDER TELLS AMERICAN DADS HOW TO RAISE CHILDREN (Telegraph.co.uk)

“His band Run DMC, the first gangsta rap act to make the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, enjoyed two decades of success with songs like Walk this Way until disbanding in 2002 after the gangland execution of its DJ, Jam-Master Jay. All of which makes Simmons an unlikely candidate to be America’s latest parenting guru. Now though, at the age of 43, he is an ordained minister and has reinvented himself as the star of a reality television show in which his eminently functional family serves as a role model for black America. Last week, the self-styled “Rev Run” was publishing his first book, dispensing wisdom on how to make parenting “cool” again and urging young black fathers to play with their children.”

Image By: Joanie Cahill, SXC

THE FRIDAY ROUND-UP! is powered by DadTrends.com, a soon-to-be-released companion site to TheFatherLife.com

Ben Murphy

Ben Murphy, founder of The Father Life, is an Adventure Athlete, Writer, and Wellness Advocate who used to be obese. You can ask him your questions at www.BenMurphyOnline.com. He lives in upstate New York with his wife and three daughters.