In 2021, then Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson mocked U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg’s paternity leave as “trying to figure out how to breastfeed.” Of course, Carlson’s point was that parenting newborns is “women’s work.” Fearful of changing cultural norms about male and female roles, we see many, like Carlson, who disparage these new ideas, attempting to freeze gender roles in place by labeling some behavior “natural” and dismissing all other behavior as “unnatural.”  But Nature actually shows us something quite different – that not only is maleness and fatherhood indelibly intertwined, but that the qualities of each are as diverse as the species (and to a lesser extent, cultures) on the planet. At our first summer service of the season, Jan Sacco will lead in an exploration of some of the myriad ways that Nature and people define what it means to be both male, and a father.