Peter Pan in The Promised Land

Here's a couple of edifying pieces.

The first is an essay from a recent City Journal by Kay Hymowitz, titled "Child-Man in the Promised Land," in which she accounts the cultural glorification of men who never really grow up.

Here's the beginning:

It’s 1965 and you’re a 26-year-old white guy. You have a factory job, or maybe you work for an insurance broker. Either way, you’re married, probably have been for a few years now; you met your wife in high school, where she was in your sister’s class. You’ve already got one kid, with another on the way. For now, you’re renting an apartment in your parents’ two-family house, but you’re saving up for a three-bedroom ranch house in the next town. Yup, you’re an adult!

Now meet the twenty-first-century you, also 26. You’ve finished college and work in a cubicle in a large Chicago financial-services firm. You live in an apartment with a few single guy friends. In your spare time, you play basketball with your buddies, download the latest indie songs from iTunes, have some fun with the Xbox 360, take a leisurely shower, massage some product into your hair and face—and then it’s off to bars and parties, where you meet, and often bed, girls of widely varied hues and sizes. They come from everywhere: California, Tokyo, Alaska, Australia. Wife? Kids? House? Are you kidding?

That description may sound like a bit of hyperbole, but read the whole thing. Our culture is inundated with that attitude, and among many sections of our society, men forsake hardship for the JM Barrie fantasy.

Contrast this with "The Month of Man" address by Ray Van Neste of Union University.

Our culture is infatuated with youth and encourages you not to grow up. After all, it says, the glory is in the youth. If you would be men you must reject this siren song and swim against the tide. You must diligently seek to throw off immaturity and to grow up. Remember the one boy who never grew up was Peter Pan - and in case you haven’t noticed his role has typically been played by a woman. The chase for perpetual youth is never manly. The other example of avoiding the effects of growing up is the medieval boys choirs. To maintain the high voices of the boys as they aged, the boys would be castrated. Again, avoiding maturity is emasculating.

So my main point to you tonight is, work on growing up. It does not “just happen.” Examples abound of physically mature males who have never truly attained manhood because they failed to mature in anyway other than physically.

Read the whole thing. You won't be disappointed.

Jim Tressel's Mancakes

This is so great. So there's a blog out there that is about "college football recipes" or some such. I don't know if they are recipes inspired by college football celebrities or actually shared by them, but this place has something called "Jim Tressel's Mancakes," because he's such a man, he doesn't eat pancakes, he eats mancakes.

I will warn you, the writer of the blog uses naughty words, which is almost as bad as not liking Ohio State. Anyway, here's the recipe:

1 c. wheat flour
1 c. oatmeal
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbspn brown sugar
4 tbsp ground flax seed
1 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp nutmeg ground
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 c milk
2 eggs
1 tbsp butter

add dried fruits, or maybe almonds

mix to same consistency as regular pancake batter and cook normally.

Photo caption: Jim likes to celebrate victories over Michigan with a big stack of mancakes. He also likes to forget the sting of bowl losses to SEC with a big stack of mancakes, 'cause in the South, they're not man enough to eat mancakes. That's why they have grits.

Being a Real Man Week resumes

So, when you have a neuroscience test and your computer hard drive dies, things can get put on hold. By the way, don't try to remove the battery to restart your computer. You can push and hold the little power button, and that should do just fine. If you do what I did, your computer will forget what a hard drive is, and not even John can fix it completely (though he did save my files from oblivion by booting up in Linux, the operating system for people who hate Windows but know they don't listen to enough indie rock to have a Mac. But John does listen to enough indie rock to own a Mac. But I digress).

Anyway, it's time for a new installment of Being a Real Man.

Here's another good post from the Art of Manliness.

Are you a pace-setter? You might want to buy a Homburg. And if you have no idea what I am talking about, click here.

Also, when you shave, do you feel like you got run over by a lawn mower? Resolve the pain of razor burn with a classic wet-shave here. Plus save money. (PS. Chris, the beard is gone. I'm sorry).

But now we get to the good stuff. Seriously, skip the first links and go with these. They're from Boundless. Folks our age (I assume most of my readers are my age, but if you're not, that's ok) are asking how to become a man. And some wise folks answered.

Becoming a Man, Pt. 1

Becoming a Man, Pt. 2

Ok, that's all for now, peoples. But I got some more links to finish up our Week (and a Half) of Being A Real Man.

Photo caption: John drilling a hole in my computer to get the files out.....Actually, it's "Carpenter at Work at Douglas Dam," by Alfred T. Palmer, June 1942.

Learning the Art of Manliness

I just found basically the best website ever---not explicitly Christian, but plenty of fantastic stuff abounds within.

It's The Art of Manliness.

Here are a couple of great posts. Both somewhat relationship-themed. But it's good stuff.

For all my married friends out there, read this: Fourteen Ways to Affair-proof Your Marriage. Note: I'm implying you need the help, but you might appreciate it nonetheless.

And then: "Finding Yourself is a Crock." I'll have another article on this--albeit more scholarly--later this week.

What are your thoughts? Do you agree? As always folks, leave a comment below. It will make my day.

The Week Begins...

I know, it's Tuesday.

But this begins the Week of Being a Real Man.

A couple of my friends have mentioned my last post to me, and the most outstanding aspect of that one was the emphasis on a meaningful masculinity, so to speak--something that I hadn't really focused on when I posted that last one, but something I realize now is certainly important--both in that post and in our lives. (At least for half of us. Although I guess most of the ladies out there would appreciate have a "real man" in their lives, so maybe for all of us.)

Anyway, over the week, I may not provide a whole lot of commentary, but I will provide some good links--most of them serious.

So the first link in the week of Being a Real Man is:

"The Marks of Manhood," by Albert Mohler.

Mohler is a noted radio program host--I think he's some manner of Baptist. In any case, his essay is hosted on The Rebelution, a website/organization started by Alex and Brett Harris (younger brothers of Josh Harris) encouraging teenagers to "do hard things" for God, their families, and their communities, instead of giving in to prevailing attitudes of indulgence.

In any case, feel free to tell me what you think.

The painting is The Accolade, by Edmund Blair Leighton, 1901.