On Fatherhood

Bucking tradition, today’s focus is on fathers. Even less traditional is the book written by John Hart, a psychotherapist, poet and Vietnam veteran who interprets the father’s role through the biblical figure Joseph.

Hart, an Ojai resident for 10 years until late 1998, will be at the Ventura Barnes & Noble Bookstore on Saturday and at Local Hero Bookshop in Ojai on May 16 to sign and discuss his book “Becoming a Father: The Real Work of a Man’s Soul” (Health Communications).

Hart was offered a contract to write about fathering as the result of his work as a consultant to the Norwegian National Fathering Project and the Samlivssenteret Family Life Center of Norway.

He started to write one kind of book and ended up taking a fictional leap into the unknown life of Joseph.

The book is neither theologically nor historically perfect, as he notes, but is a vehicle to demonstrate the importance of fathers in raising children.

“One day I just had this idea: What if we discovered the writings of Joseph? And the book just evolved from there,” Hart said.

Written in part as a long narrative poem, he imagined Joseph as one of the men in his Norwegian group or the young black fathers he taught in Alabama or New Mexico, where he works with teenage Hispanic fathers.

“I wanted them to relate to Joseph as a real person and what he might have gone through with his emotions,” Hart said.

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The book deals with five stages of fatherhood, from acknowledgment or denial through the final mentoring stage. Personal stories about fathers by Hart, Ojai writer Gabriel Arquilevich, actress Mary Steenburgen and others take up the last half of the book.

Hart is well into the second and third books of his Joseph trilogy--Joseph deals with conflicts as his son wants to go off on his own, and both father and son have to grow up, let go and deal with loss.

Not everyone will respond to the book, said Hart, adding that he thinks it will spread through word of mouth.

Hart, who has fathered a daughter and has recently become stepfather to a 14-year-old son, points out one difference between men and women:

“Men have to do things to feel things--do love to feel love--do the care-taking to feel it,” he said.

He lauds Norway’s practice of allowing men to take paternity leave, which encourages early bonding, and he applauds those men who bathe, diaper, nurture and otherwise care for their babies.

“When the guys do it, that bond is there, so even if they get divorced, our hope is they’ll stay bonded,” Hart said.

Later this month, Hart will share new ways of looking at fathering in Tromso, Norway, when he attends the World of Women, an international conference for women held every three years. Meanwhile, he will continue to work as an associate professor in the School of Social Work at New Mexico Highlands University and consider his next writing project--a textbook on psychotherapy.

You can catch him at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Ventura Barnes & Noble, 4360 E. Main St., 339-9170

May 16 at 2 p.m. he will be at Local Hero Bookshop in Ojai, 254 E. Ojai Ave., 646-3165.

MORE HAPPENINGS

* Today, 4 p.m. Wildwood Elementary librarian Mary Lock will lead a discussion on “Who Put That Hair in My Toothbrush” by Jerry Spinelli at Borders Books & Music, 125 W. Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks, 497-8159.

* Today, 7 p.m. Poetry night with a featured poet followed by open mike at 8 p.m. at Borders Books & Music, 125 W. Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks, 497-8159.

* Tuesday, 7:30 p.m. Ventura County Writers Club will feature Alexis O’Neill, writing instructor and author, at Borders Books & Music, 125 W. Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks, 497-8159.

* Tuesday, 7:30 p.m. Great Books of the Century reading group will discuss the 1930s and “Call It Sleep” by Henry Roth at the Thousand Oaks Barnes & Noble, 160 S. Westlake Blvd., 446-2820.

* Tuesday, 10:30 a.m. Storytime at Adventures for Kids, 3457 Telegraph Road, Ventura, 650-9688.

* Wednesday, 7 p.m. Great Books of the Century fiction reading group will discuss “Cannery Row” by John Steinbeck at the Ventura Barnes & Noble, 4360 Main St., 339-9170.

* Thursday, 6-9 p.m. An Evening of Literacy, sponsored by the Simi Valley Unified School District, with 28 authors, 12 teachers and community members. Also, the Hombeez characters from the book series “Hangin’ With the Hombeez” will hand out stickers saying “Drug Free Is the Way to Bee” at Royal High School, 1402 Royal Ave., Simi Valley, 520-6560.

* Friday, 7 p.m. “Star Wars” story time. Ventura Barnes & Noble, 4360 Main St., 339-9170.

* Friday, 7:30 p.m. Kevin Fagan, creator of the Drabble cartoons, will sign “Mall Cops, Ducks and Fenderheads” at the Thousand Oaks Barnes & Noble, 160 S. Westlake Blvd., 446-2820.

* Saturday, 7 p.m. Pajamamania welcomes Lyle the Crocodile at Borders Books & Music, 125 W. Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks, 497-8159.

Catch you next week.

Information about book-signings, writers groups or publishing events can be faxed to Ann Shields at 647-5649 or e-mailed to anns40@aol.com.