Fathers and Sons

What would you do for your son? 

How far would you go to earn your son’s love?

Anything, probably.

Or maybe you would cut your son loose to find his own way.

But would you get embroiled in a court case or sever ties with a company that supported and endorsed your ventures and helped you get rich?

Two examples of fathers and sons have hit the media lately and it behooves ones to take a look at what is going on between the father and the son.

There’s Ed Woodard Jr., the former CEO and president of now defunct Bank of the Commonwealth, and his son T. Brandon Woodard, who is also embroiled in the same trial with twists and turns, colorful characters, villains and vilifies.

There’s Wendell Franklin and his son, Taylor Franklin, both of whom have split from S.L. Nusbaum Realty Co., one of the oldest and most venerated firms in the region.
It’s rare that anyone splits from SL Nusbaum, let alone set up a company to compete for the same business.

The Franklins, along with Tom Johnston, formed their own firm and set up temporary headquarters in the Wells Fargo Center, the same building where SL Nusbaum is housed.

The Russian writer Ivan Turgenev explored the generational conflict betweens fathers and sons in his novel “Fathers and Sons” in the mid-nineteenth century when Russia was ruled by czars and serfs owned nothing except the clothes on their back.

The novel compares and contrasts the old and the new, the emerging political thought against the backdrop of traditional Russia, steeped in the orthodoxy of centuries of ancient patronage and patriarchal rule.

Conflict and contrast.

Always, the son wants to replace the father, or do better than the father, or runs away and starts his own life.

The son grows, matures and understands why a father does what he does, or maybe he never understands.

But there’s a severing between father and son.

That’s when the son finally becomes a man. He must find his own self, his own path, good or bad. But he must find it. No one can find it for him or enable him.

He may question his own decision, but in the end he is better for it.

The split between the Franklins and SL Nusbaum and a multimillion settlement defies logic really.

Unless one looks at the underlying cause – and if one has some knowledge of the situation.

The split, supposedly, was due to the son, Taylor, not getting what the father, Wendell, thought he deserved. And what the son thought he deserved.

Over in the federal courthouse, the gallery is hearing that T. Brandon Woodard benefitted from his Daddy’s position with the Bank of the Commonwealth.

A $100,000 renovation of his son’s Norfolk home billed to the bank is one example.

According to the Virginian-Pilot, Brandon Woodard’s lawyers “have largely sought to distance him from his father.”

Ah, father-love. Loyalty. Courage. Honor.

In both cases, the father does everything for the son. And the son?

Respect? Love? Honor? Courage?

The father enables the son, and some could argue that the father has tried to buy the love of the son. 

Or maybe it's mother love in disguise.