The comedian Garrison Keillor wrote a funny essay called “The Book of Guys.” In it he listed “Useful Things I Can Do,” and “Useful Things I Can’t Do.” Among the things listed that he could not do were, handle a boat, throw a curve ball, bag a deer, and throw a left hook. Most women would go down the list and say “What does it matter if a guy can’t do those things?” As John Edredge quotes in his book “Wild At Heart” “But that’s a womanly view of manhood.” John is talking about this very thing to his pal Craig, as they hike their way through grizzly country to reach a good fishing stream. We pick up on the book here.
“Craig and I were joking about this as we hacked our way through grizzly infested woods in Alaska. The only other guys we met all day were a group of locals on their way out. They looked like something out of Solider Of Fortune Magazine-sawed off shotguns, pistols, bandoleers of ammo slung across their chest, huge knives. They were ready. They had what it takes. And we? We had a whistle. I’m serious. Thats what we brought for our dangerous trek through the wild; a whistle. Talk about a couple of pansies. That’s how most men feel about their readiness to fight, to live with risk, to capture the beauty. We have a whistle. You see even though the desires are there for a battle to fight, an adventure to live, and a beauty to rescue, even though our boyhood dreams once were filled with those things, we don’t think were up to it. Why don’t men play the “man?” Why don’t they offer their strength to a world desperately in need of it? For two simple reasons. We doubt very much that we have any real strength to offer, and were pretty certain if we did offer what we have it wouldn’t be enough. Something has gone wrong and we know it.
What happened to us? The answer is partly back in the story of mankind, and partly in the details of each man’s story.” (Wild At Heart page 47-48)
John is of the belief there is a “Braveheart” in every man, and his book explores the possibilities to recapture what we were designed to be. After all we were created in the likeness and image of God, and as you read about the Creator you won’t find a pansy playing a harp while seated on a cloud. I highly recommend that every man read “Wild At Heart” by John Eldredge. I’m having to rethink my own paradigm of what it means to be fully man.
Mike
Interesting – will have to find some time to give it a read.