John Griffith is a devoted father and is currently raising three daughters. For most of their lives, he has been a single parent. His fatherhood story is jaw-dropping, inspirational, emotionally charged, and spiritual.
In his own words, “I was the least likely candidate to be a father. If pairing a dad with his soon-to-be-born children was done via a selection process by some committee of “model” parents, I would have been an unlikely choice. But that’s ok. I am in select company. The greatest stories we humans tell are the triumphs of the underdog against seemingly insurmountable odds.
“Nobody believed David could defeat Goliath, except David of course. The Continental Army should not have prevailed against the armies of the British Empire in the American Revolution. In the 1980 Winter Olympic Games, the USA hockey team defeated the heavily-favored Soviets and brought home the gold medal in what became known as “The Miracle on Ice.” Who saw that one coming?”
If there is one phrase to describe John Griffith, “passion-fueled creativity” would be it.
Griffith recently published his book “A Dad’s Fun Guide to Raising Happy Daughters; Imagination Activities Against Body-Snatching Zombie Naysayers and Other Foes of Happiness.
Griffith had this to say about his motivation for writing this book:
We live in a society where the media (unintentionally) works against our happiness. We are constantly bombarded by a stream of “Bad News.” We are encouraged to find power in suffering and entitlement. Addictive behavior is sensationalized and glamorized. Many in the media promote lying, deception, and revenge. Heck, we are even taught how to get away with murder.
Have you ever wondered, “Where are the messages regarding the amazing power of choice, personal responsibility, and accountability?” Why isn’t every person told they are responsible for their own happiness?”
And that brings me to the crux of the matter.
We can’t do much about the focus of the media. Smut sells. But that is okay. It is not the media’s duty to provide our children with the tools necessary for a happy life. Dads and moms, that is our job. We are the ones to show our children how to remain happy while living in a society replete with smutty messaging. But we don’t have a chance at raising a happy child, if we ourselves are not happy.
We parents are (potentially) our children’s most powerful influencers. Our support, guidance and love can dramatically impact their lives, despite the messaging that works against their happiness. What an awesome opportunity we have!
Griffith is the creator and owner of the blog Dads Raising Daughters (www.dadsraisingdaughters.com). The mission of Griffith’s blog: “To make today’s world a better place through the expansion of fatherhood in the lives of daughters, and to make tomorrow’s world a better place by empowering daughters to believe and pursue their dreams, fully expecting that their dreams are possible as they grow into amazing, world-changing women.”
Griffith is a guest author on a Family Law blog, providing encouragement and advice to dads as they navigate their way through this new era of gender equality where fathers and mothers are recognized as equals in regards to parenting capabilities. According to Griffith, “Fathers don’t have a lot of history to use as a source of knowledge and inspiration, so it is important to provide information and messages of support to fill in the gaps.”
Griffith has been identified as a hero in Ralph Zuranski’s “In Search of Heroes” program, and is the subject of Zuranski’s upcoming book In Search of Heroes: John Griffith’s Story. For the past 50 years, “In Search of Heroes” has researched heroes, heroism and the archetype roles that are an integral part of a hero’s journey.
Griffith is well educated in science, music, history, religion, and mathematics; graduating Magna Cum Laude from Texas Tech University. During Griffith’s college days, he toured America and England with the experimental music ensemble, The Paxton Group, collaborating with sound and visual poetry artist Paula Claire (Oxford) and performing at festivals featuring modern music pioneers such as Jean-Michel Jarre and John Cage.
Griffith arranged the score for the pilot of a children’s television show which premiered at the USA Children’s Film Festival. He is co-composer a children’s musical and has served as music director and composer for a multitude of theater productions.
He has performed for high-ranking bishops of the Catholic church, and when trekking across the globe, makes it a habit of finding the most popular blues jams where he sits in and hammers on the piano with the local stars in countries such as Canada, Bermuda, England, New Zealand and even Qatar.
And that is just his musical side.
Griffith has advanced technology skills, which he has been putting to use for the last 18 years in Healthcare IT, most recently at an executive level. He has played a pivotal role in advancing healthcare startups to the next stage.
He is one of those rare individuals that possess high technical acumen, creative vision, and strategy, the ability to “see” solutions that are not readily apparent, advanced interpersonal “sales-esque” skills, and articulates messages with clarity and in a vernacular that is audience-appropriate. He is a natural people connector, leader and relationship builder, and he inspires others to believe in possibilities.
Griffith is an expert in breaking down barriers and navigating labyrinths to solve complex and strategic problems involving people, processes, and technology. His peers view him a “Chief Creativity Officer” who couples out-of-the-box thinking with unbridled creativity to develop innovative IT solutions for connecting systems, information, and people together.
But the most noteworthy achievement of John Griffith’s life is in fact, his emergence from a 10-year period of being “utterly wayward.” Shortly after Griffith graduated college, he decided to go on a quest to find himself.
About those years, Griffith writes, “Instead of finding myself, I got lost. Hopelessly lost. If it wasn’t for the birth of my first daughter in 1998, I am confident that my life would have ended before the new millennium. I had become a version of what Pink Floyd describes in their classic, “Comfortably Numb.” I was miserable, numb, and comfortable with that, I was apathetic. I believed the end of my life was near, but I didn’t care. It is still difficult for me to reconcile the man I was before my first daughter was born, with the man I became after she was born. It was a radical transformation.”
In addition to John Griffith’s three daughters Shade, Reese and Harmony, he has one adult son (Aaron), whom he adopted just before going on the 10-year journey described above.
About Aaron, Griffith states “I missed his growing up years because I guess I was trying to grow up too. Now I am learning how to connect with an adult son that I forsake during most of his childhood. He is beautiful, open-hearted, kind, sensitive, witty, humorous, and loving. He has been amazing in his response and his willingness to open his heart to me. I hope to write someday a book about connecting with adult children when the younger years between a father and son were missed. Nothing is ever lost in this life; there are only gains to be had. But Aaron has chosen to expand those gains. He is remarkable.”
Recently, John Griffith remarried an incredible woman and now has her and two stepsons to add to the family. Griffith sees new books in his future from this experience as well. Jokingly, he said “I probably will never write a book on marriage. But I just might write a book on remarriage and blended families. Something like, If at First You Don’t Succeed; The Remarriage I Finally Got Right.”
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