Man-cation – Reshaping the safe, soft American male
When I read about the Shackleton expedition (read “The Endurance”) or the about the Lewis and Clark expedition (I recommend “Undaunted Courage”) I wonder if we as men are anywhere as tough, as resilient, as capable as our forefathers.
And then I see a video like this: http://vimeo.com/12714406 , and the question is answered.
OK, my hat’s off to these guys for taking a “Thug life” video and turning it into something that’s family friendly and funny. I’ll not be too tough on them - all they’re doing is setting to rap and recording what is all too true.
The real blame falls on us guys when we allow ourselves to devolve into weak corporate drones who move meekly from air-conditioned house to air-conditioned car to air-conditioned office enchanted by the blackberry screen, the computer screen and the TV screen. As society constantly works to domesticate, sensitize, and emasculate us, we’re less and less capable of sounding Whitman’s barbaric YAWP over the rooftops of the world. We're being conditioned to look forward in the short term to the next televised football game and in the longer term to the next purchase of lawn care or home entertainment gear that we use under the supervision and permission of our wives.
Now, more than ever, in the right ways for the right reasons, we men need to turn back the tide of this deconstruction. The most important targets of this re-testosteronization after us must be our own sons.
When my boys reach 13 years old I take them on a trip. We go see and experience something different and do something difficult. When my older boy JD was 13 we went to Peru and hiked the Inca Trail to the ruins at Machu Picchu. It was cold and rainy much of the way and the trail crossed over a mountain pass at over 14,000 feet of elevation. Four years removed, we both view that trip as one of the greatest things we ever got to do.
A few weeks ago my younger son, Jackson, and I went to Colorado to hike part of the Colorado trail. The plan was to hike from Durango to Silverton (about 72 miles on the trail) and take the train back. We got rained on a lot, dealt with equipment failures, staggered up steep trails sucking in the thin air of 12,000 feet of elevation, and eventually had our hike cut short by repeated hailstorms. The learning experience value of hail starts to taper off sharply as the hailstones go from pea size to marble size. In addition to keeping us off the trail and getting us behind on our timeline, the hail and rain got Jackson hypothermic and we had to turn back to Durango. We did get in four good days of hiking, though, and were able to do some other side-trips like whitewater kayaking. I have no doubt that this will also be something we view as a great, great trip, even though we didn’t make it all the way to Silverton. Even Dirty Harry said, “A man’s got to know his limitations.”
Let’s do a self rescue of our manhood. Let's teach ourselves and our boys that it's good to do something hard and even fail, learn something that challenges what you think you already know, and serve and love someone who can’t serve you back and doesn’t appreciate it.
