"Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one." –Marcus Aurelius
This is going to be a little controversial, and easily misunderstood, but I think it’s an important thought. It’s on the relationship between pain and weakness. I say controversial and misunderstood because I don’t mean weakness as an insult. I’m not even sure I mean it as the opposite of strength. I mean as the…
Men are struggling in today’s world, with falling employment and education rates, and rising addiction and suicide rates. At the same time we’re being outspokenly cast as dangerous, predatory, and ‘oppressive’, which doesn’t help men find their place or confidence in their identity as men. So I fully support men’s groups that aim to help…
Let’s take a moment to talk about the state of men’s health, and who cares about it. Spoiler alert: the answer is that if we don’t care about ourselves, ‘society’ or the ‘government’ won’t care either. The state of men’s health today is showing some warning signs. Life expectancy is plateauing or declining, and is…
Some interesting studies have come out confirming that we are less male than our predecessors. The studies show that we have less testosterone than we did in the 1980s. A 20-, 40-, or 70-year-old person today has less testosterone than a person of the same age a generation ago. What happened and why should it…
“Attention is a limited resource, so pay attention to where you pay attention.” – Howard Rheingold “The quality of one’s life depends on the quality of attention. Whatever you pay attention to will grow more important in your life.” – Deepak Chopra When I was growing up, there was always a discussion about crime rates in America….
With courage you will dare to take risks, have the strength to be compassionate, and the wisdom to be humble. Courage is the foundation of integrity. – Keshavan Nair There is a lot of talk about ‘vulnerability’ these days, but it doesn’t seem to mean the same thing to people. One definition is well defined…
“There are two questions a man must ask himself: The first is ‘Where am I going?’ and the second is ‘Who will go with me?’ If you ever get these questions in the wrong order you are in trouble.” –Sam Keen Masculinity has taken many forms in many cultures, but the core of it is always…
You have to be a man before you can be a gentleman. –John Wayne As a man, you should understand your sexual attraction without feeling guilty about it. Most men are very visual, and constantly notice the attractiveness of most women around them younger than about 60. Despite the ‘eyes only for me’ romance novel…
The search for authenticity has become a fad in the last generation. It’s applied both internally and externally – we look for ‘authentic’ things or experiences in the world, and we try to be ‘authentic’ ourselves. It may be a reaction to the superficiality of consumerism. But it is subject to a sort of uncertainty…
“If unwilling to rise in the morning, say to thyself, ‘I awake to do the work of a man.’” –Marcus Aurelius In recent years we’ve heard people constantly giving the advice to ‘follow your passion’ or asking us ‘what are you passionate about?’ More broadly, we have developed a cultural assumption that it is better…