Phoenix (7), Judah (7), and Decker (4),
You are a bit young to think about manhood but from the
perspective of your 60-year-old grandpa, it’s just on the horizon of your
life. Our current culture has
developed an allergy to masculinity, either claiming it’s toxic (some going so
far as to blame meat eating on male toxicity,
who knew?), or that you would be better served to learn to emote and talk more like girls. (Your brain isn’t wired to emote and talk the way a girl’s brain is
wired. But you are uniquely wired
to emote and communicate in your own masculine way!)
Here’s the truth about men:
Men are capable of great good:
- Good men have laid down their lives for centuries in order to protect their families, their tribes, their countries, and their beliefs.
- Good men have put their lives at risk to build the infrastructures of society (92 percent of all work related deaths are male…).
- Good men have created systems of government with the intent to provide freedom and equality for all.
- Good men have always been and continue to be caring dads, husbands, employers, employees, and grandparents.
Men are also capable of great destruction:
Though writing about boys, these words from my friend Dr.
Michael Gurian, speak directly to this downside of masculinity--…nearly every social problem we face in our
civilization today—unemployment, income inequality, incarceration rates,
religious extremism, domestic abuse, mental illness, health care inequalities,
and painful violence against women—intersects in some way with the state of
boyhood in America. (Saving our Sons, p. vii.)
Yes…some men are destructive. Some men damage the lives of others. Some men seek to harass those of a
different race or religion or political persuasion or gender. Some men are bad men.
But many, if not most men, are good men. As your grandpa my hope and prayer is
that as you grow into manhood, you number yourselves among the good
guys. To give you some guidance,
here’s a picture of what a good man looks like (with special thanks to Dr.
Gurian for his great work on this framework for manhood from his book, The Purpose of Boys):
A good man is:
- Honorable: He does the right thing, even when it’s the harder way. He treats all people with respect.
- Enterprising: He doesn’t give up easily. He fights for the good of others while at the same time maintaining a core belief in his worth as a good man.
- Responsible: A good man lives to serve others. As Martin Luther King Jr. put it: The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in the moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige, and even his life for the welfare of others.
- Original: A good man knows who he is. He’s aware of his strengths and weaknesses. He knows what his unique gifts and talents are. And he uses them to help build a better world through his family, his work, his citizenship, and his faith.
Boys, that's the kind of men I want you to be: Heroic men who show the world that good men exist and that good men are essential for building strong families, communities, and a better society.
