Warning! Deep thinking going on below:

Recently, I have been thinking about the nature of manhood. One night, I awoke at around 6 am, didn't really want to get out of bed, so I just stayed where I was thinking. It was one of those times when you are half awake and half asleep, the place of visions and ephiphanies. I was thinking back on all I have learned on the subject when a word picture came to me. It went like this:

You come upon a little one, a child, laying in the fetal position on the ground. The little one could be a son, a daugter, someone precious. You take this little into your loving embrace, and in so doing turn your back to the rest of the world. Knowing that you will feel the assualt that will come if you harbor this little one, you embrace it anyways. Over time your back becomes pitted and scarred from the efforts to protect and love your little one. Over that same time, your little one grows and changes, until it no longer resembles the little one you rescued fromt the weight of the world. Eventually your strentgh gives out and you can no longer put forth the effort to keep the little one in a safe embrace. Even as your back breaks from the weight of the world it is carrying, your little one rises up to defend you.

My question from all this is how does it feel at that moment when your strenght gives out, and how does one deal with that situation? Is it the nature of manhhod to protect those we love only to realize in the end that we can't? I am not a father myself, but I like to think of myself as one. I can't help but wonder how I would react at the moment when my love is so great, yet my strength is depleted, and I am put into this kind of situation.