Some Thought

Lately I've been thinking about what it means to be a man. That is not exactly new thought, but I was thinking about integrity, virtue--like Greek Arete. The Greek believed that honor/virtue was gained through victorious battle. They showed their prowess on the battle field. In the same way, I believe that our own battles score us virtue/honor depending on how we fight them. While I'm not eviscerating people, I'm writing papers, trying not to kill the annoying people and finding ways to justify my own existance. Many of these things could be included in the idea of Manhood I'm talking about. Manhood not being somthing that you fall into when you get your girl pregnant, or start making more than 40k a year, but rather a way to expand yourself into your previoulsy unrealized potential. The greater ability be a vessel for good, and to be good by your family and friends, to be known as a man who possesess integrity and a discerning mind, not a mindless sex drone.
I always thought that the journey from boyhood to manhood centered around girls, employment and time. Recently it dawned upon me that being a man is a choice. And I believe that it is mostly effected by example. At some point a guy has to decided to grow up. The question is: but how? Thats why we have fathers, role models, ideologies and observant minds, our brains know that at some time we, as dudes, are going to ask ourselves what it means to be a man--and your brain wants to have something contrete to tell you. Everyone has an idea of what a man ought to be, and why.

I subscribe to what I guess I would call a neo-classical version of Man-ness. Man possesing classical knowledge but who is also up with the times. I don't know why the ameba in my brain that I label as man looks like this, but it evolved that way through my own obserations.
Maybe the best way to model the idea of the neo-classical man would be a comparison of possesions. I have a collection of books (that live in a closet because I'm afraid of sun damage) Half of my wardrobe consists of jeans and solid color t-shirts. However, I'm not afraid of shirts with buttons on them, or stripes, I always match my belts with my shoes and I do heartily believe that it's hard to beat a recently dry cleaned suit. But I have work clothes too; I have two toolboxes and a 1.5 ton hydraulic jack, a 4x4, a flyrod, a resist-all cowboy hat (that doesn't just collect dust), I change my own oil and have a whole drawer dedicated to keeping track of my running and lifting shorts and socks. I have one pair of dedicated running shoes, a heart rate monitor, two pairs of black dress shoes, one pair of kick-a everday kicks and a pair of boots, mixed in with the odds and ends of those shoes that have survived the last couple of years.
The neo-modern man is well rounded. Understands how to dress himself. He understands why a quad-core processor is awesome, is concerned about his health and subsequently his fitness, he also has a varied skill set, he can work with his hands and his mind and derives pleasure by both.

One last caveat...this is just one chain of random thought, personal philosophy and conjecture--all of which are elastic.