Seth asked me to follow up on his blog “Men recovering their lost masculinity”. After reading his blog, I asked myself, who cares? What’s the point? Have we lost our masculinity? Does this masculinity need to be recovered? Why would anyone reading these blogs care? With one of the big words in christianity these days being ‘relevant’, I ask, is masculinity relevant? Does masculinity matter? Have the guys I am going to hike with lost their masculinity? Have I?
What is masculinity? I did a google search, I read the wikipedia article on masculinity. Masculinity is defined as manly in character. So what is manly? Cicero wrote “a man’s chief quality is courage“. “Scholars suggest integrity and equality as masculine values in male-male relationships,[5] and virility in male-female relationships.”Jeffrey Richards describes a European, “medieval masculinity which was essentially Christian and chivalric.”[6] Again ethics, courage and generosity are seen as characteristic of the portrayal of men in literary history.”
There are seven of us going on this hike. Have these seven men lost their masculinity? Have we lost our courage, our integrity, our chivalry, our virility, ethics, generousity? I don’t think so. Knowing these seven men, I don’t think we have lost our masculinity, that is why we are going on this hike. The masculinity inside each of us demands that we go on this hike. The masculinity in us gives us the courage to go outdoors, be uncomfortable (just the altitude is enough to make this difficult), face different fears (a couple of these guys don’t even know each other- that can be scary enough. What about financial fears of the time away and expense of the trip? Mountain lions, rattlesnakes, grizzlies…do we bring a gun?), the masculinity in us drives us to step up to this challenge. We need this risk, this adventure, this challenge.
I believe this hike is important for the seven of us as men, this is an investment.
Why a man hike? Why hike? Why just the guys?
I think a hike makes sense because we can push ourselves physically without having any real skill. Anyone who can walk can hike. This is not a complex activity, so since men naturally measure ourselves against each other, even if this truly is not competitive, we are always trying to read each other’s character. We are always trying to measure our own character- do I have what it takes?
We can hike until we are physically exhausted. Men spend so much energy propping up our false selves, our facade, just plain faking who we are so others will respect us. We do this so much I think we even forget who God truly made us to be. This stuff is more difficult when one is exhausted.
Men need to move. That is another reason to hike. Fresh air and exercise, God made us this way, it is healthy, why say this in any more detail? Most of us are so sedentary we are clinically depressed and we don’t even know it.
Nature. I thought John Muir said “nature is medicine”, but when I googled that, I didn’t find anything linked to him. Some quotes I did find from him mentioned that he had most of the bible memorized and found God in nature much more than he ever found God in the church.
I did find a lot of interesting new agey stuff in that search though. I also found a book that said being in nature is good for ADHD (that’s me, and probably everyone else on this hike). I found a link that I put here that shows University of Michigan scientists found that being in an urban setting makes us dumber (I can’t think of a better word, maybe I need to take this hike more than I realize) but that a brief walk in the woods or even just pictures of nature begins to improve scores on the tests they used. Here’s that link:
http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/kit-eaton/technomix/scientists-urban-places-actually-make-you-stupid
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Why just men? The quote “masculinity begets masculinity” is what jumps out at me. This is a quote or an idea I first learned from reading John Eldredge, it just rings true to my soul. Maybe it rings true to my soul because I have had the blessing of having some men in my life who have taught me some things about being a man. I have experienced this firsthand and expect to experience this again on the hike.
I think it is not just any men though, Solomon said in Proverbs 27:17 that “as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” I know the Sunday School answer for what this verse means, I guess it is obvious to the Sunday School teacher, but not to me. I don’t understand how iron sharpens iron, and a search online gave some interesting answers. I have a friend who is an engineer and has a business fixing heavy machinery, he is a real man, and he laughs at this verse because he says iron dulls iron. To sharpen iron you need a harder material. In my mind, this verse could be some humor on Solomon’s part? But bottom line, iron shapes iron, and a man shapes another man.
I choose these men to spend days hiking with because in time spent together we will effect each other and shape each other, and this is a good group of guys. We need to wisely choose the people we allow to shape us.
There is a book called “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Steven Covey. I have read this a number of times, my first time when I was 23 (11 years ago! The first self-help book I ever read). Sometimes I try to follow these habits and other times I don’t, but some of the ideas in this book are “sharpening the saw” and balancing PC and P, or production capability and production. I believe Abraham Lincoln said that “if he were given 8 hours to chop down a tree, he would spend 6 sharpening the saw”.
For me, the bottom line for going on this hike is for the good of the people in my circle of influence. I expect to be sharpened, I expect to invest in my production capability. I expect to come home energized, recharged. I expect to have an adventure, to build relationships. I expect to be a better husband, father, son, uncle, brother.
I expect to come home more masculine. I expect to come home with just a little more courage, integrity, generousity, chivalry, christian character, and virility. I think it matters. I think masculinity is relevant.
