What exactly do all these people have in common?
Killarney,
They're all fruitcakes with natural aptitude.

I enjoyed this advice and wisdom.
I like a father who takes an interest in his daughter's mental well being.

Sure Killarney, a girl needs female role models etc, but she also needs positive male role models so she knows the right sort of guys (if she is into guys!) to get involved with.

If she sees how well her male relatives treat everyone else, then she will expect and demand at least the same from any men she meets in the future.
Girls need respect and wisdom imparted from both adult males and females.

No amount of positive female role models in a girl's life will help much if she ends up hooking up with an idiot!

Suse

It's not enough to have positive role models of both sexes in a young girl's life, when the culture she grows up in treats the female experience as invisible.

Imagine a woman writing a letter like this for her son, only she barely mentions a single man at all and instead quotes from and cites a list of about 20 women as philosophical inspiration.

Such an action by a mother would be seen as weird and emasculating. It might even be seen as psychological abuse.

Yet, the converse is considered not only normal, but the actions of a caring father taking an interest in his daughter's mental wellbeing.

The cultural brainwashing of both boys and girls into believing that men are much more important than women starts from the cradle, and most of the time it's done in an atmosphere of caring and supportiveness, by people who love them.

boys and girls into believing that men are much more important than women
Killarney,
Isn't that what set that whole insipid bandwagon rolling when the feminists started with making women more important ?

Thank you for your comments.

I fear many readers may be under an understandable misconception that I need to correct.

Unfortunately, unbeknown to me, Graham decided - in the normal exercise of his editorial prerogative (over which I have no control) - to add the words “ advice to a daughter” to the title - something I would never have chosen to do, because I never thought of it in those terms.

The essay was not intended as advice, or “a treatise”, to my daughter, or anyone else. And I am absolutely sure my daughter understood the nature my gift perfectly in the context of our relationship, about which you know nothing. The suggestion that my daughter is “being groomed” is presumptuous.

The essay was deliberately framed as an imaginary speculation about the lessons two wise old men -admittedly shared by a present not so wise old man - might want to share from the tradition we all inherited, one that Killarney rightly points out is dominated by old men.

I look forward to the day when there will be a great female artist who will paint a similar work to Rembrandt entitled: “Two wise women conversing”. I wonder which, if any, of the five ‘lessons” would be rejected by such wise women elders. Certainly the two wisest women I consulted extensively in preparing this article - my daughter and my partner who come from different generations and backgrounds - both thought all five were crucially important.

The essay was intended as an invitation to readers to personally reflect on what lessons have been important in their own unique life experience, as taken up by Rhosty in his first comment. It was also intended as a guide to some of the sources of wisdom that have been important to many of my generation. Mostly it was intended as an invitation to respectful conversation.