HeArt – Art Patterson’s Story
by Art Patterson, In 1973, I received a tragic phone-call. Tommy, my friend and former classmate, had passed away. Tommy was older than me and graduated from our school in the late 60s. Wheelchairs had not been invented yet and Tommy, who struggled with severe cerebral palsy, spent the entirety of his life in a cart. From what I remember, the cart was like a plain, four-legged wooden chair with two wheels on the back and a seatbelt....
Twenty-Seven Shovels
by Randall Rogers, Reprinted with Permission A few years ago, in 2009, I moved in with the man who raised me. It was the house I grew up in and our experience of a father/son relationship had often been strained and challenging. For me, moving in with him in the throes of my impending divorce and his deepening Cancer and Alzheimers, was both a blessing and a profound challenge. Richard was a carpenter of brilliant and impeccable...
Guest post: Why Don’t Men Seek Therapy? Masculinity
Guest post by Dr. Christopher Kilmartin – from Talking About Men’s Health – Part of an ongoing collaboration between the ManKind Project USA and the Men’s Health Network for Men’s Health Month. Scene one: an 8 year old child comes home from school and says, “The other kids are picking on me.” The parent responds with, “I’m so sorry, honey. Does it make you feel sad?” Scene two: another 8 year old child...
Guest Post: Depression and the Strength of Asking for Help
Guest post by Sam Drexler – from Talking About Men’s Health – Part of an ongoing collaboration between the ManKind Project USA and the Men’s Health Network for Men’s Health Month. Men suffering from depression often struggle to ask for help. Asking for help is widely perceived as a weakness among men, which prevents them from getting the care they need. While vulnerability may hurt a man’s self image,...
Guest Post: Support During Trauma: You Are Not Alone
Guest post by Natnael Aklile – from Talking About Men’s Health – Part of an ongoing collaboration between the ManKind Project USA and the Men’s Health Network for Men’s Health Month. As a recent survivor of an Artery Vein Malfunction, brain injuries are a topic I hold extremely dear to me. In September of 2013, a collection of tangled blood vessels in my brain tore, physically affecting the right side of...
What Stops Leaders from Empowering Others?
guest post by Alain Hunkins – Pioneer Leadership The research firm Universum recently queried over 2,000 business leaders and professionals, asking: What’s the most important quality that you expect future leaders to possess? The #1 response (41%): They empower their employees. Empowerment. It became a business buzzword twenty years ago, and has been in and out of vogue ever since. At it’s core, it’s about enabling others to do...
Flying
by Niklaus Towne My anger consumes my life and I hate myself for it. As a child, I was hospitalized for my rage. I have tried therapy, group work, meditation, acupuncture, diet changes, exercise regimens, medications, marijuana — but self-control stays out of my reach. Whenever I become stressed, I throw a tantrum. I lash out, scream, and become dangerous. My wife and I want to have a child, but she confesses that she is...
ManKind Project Durango Helping Teens in High School
by Tim Birchard The MKP Durango Area Community in southwest Colorado recently collaborated with Durango School District 9R and other local organizations to host the 2nd Annual ‘Keys To High School Success’ conference for 8th grade boys transitioning to high school.The conference, a character development opportunity for more than 200 boys (up from 90 boys served last year), featured workshops focused on nurturing Responsibility,...
The Dimming Embers – a poem
The Dimming Embers Into the dimming embers Men blow. Fire lights exploding, in the glow! Timbers falling on dusted earth. Crying. Dying. Then from the sky, tears of Life falling. Soaking. Drinking… Quenching the thirst of landed seeds. Sprouting. Branching. Leafing into new days of timbers rising! And so it shall be. After dimming embers glow. From fire dusted bark, we grow. ~philippe berthiaume 3/2/2014 Philippe Berthiaume is a...
Shadow of You – a poem
Shadow of You. Of light and dust. And skin and bone. A man among men. You were never alone. Shadow of You. Of light and dust. You carried me then. In your skin and bone. Shadow of Me. Of light and dust. And skin and bone. A man among men. I am never alone. Shadow of You. Now light and dust. Not skin and bone. I carry you now. In my skin and bone. A man among men. We are never alone. ~philippe berthiaume 12/14/14 ~honoring the memory...
All of Me – a poem
by Brooks Harrelson All of Me All of my soul wants you, What part of me can I show you? My lover wants to hold and care for you, warm you in the cold nights, and grey spaces, wrap you in protective blankets of love against the howl of change and the grief of loss until the Spring blossoms in your soul, and filling, lights your smile and your eyes. And, I want to be held so by you. My friendly, savage beast wants to romp and play with...
Men’s Work is a Tug of War
from the Lair of the Wildman If you had attended Elementary School or High School with me, you would immediately recognize me in this photograph – I am the one up front. In fact, I don’t think I was as cool as this kid. For me, those years in school were a nightmare. Sure, I was usually the last one picked for a team, I was clumsy and pudgy. We didn’t have much money and my mother made clothes for me that caused...
The Confusion that Leads to Distraction and Overwhelm
guest post by Alain Hunkins – Pioneer Leadership Some months back, I shared a post (The Antidote to the Interruption Age) about how we’re no longer in the information age–we now live in the interruption age. Do you feel more overwhelmed and distracted than you used to? If your experience is anything like many of the leaders I work with, you probably answered yes. Part of the reason we’re so much more distracted than ever before...
Stones of My Fathers – a poem
Stones of My Fathers Stones of my Fathers. Mud under foot. The Great Pyramids of Egypt and Mexico. Laid by your hands. I honor you. Stones of my Fathers. Cobbles under foot. America, Europe, the Middle East. Laid by your hands. I honor you. Stones of my Fathers. Marbled Cathedrals, Temples, and Mosques. Made by your hands. I honor you. Stones of my Fathers. Carved blocks. Michelangelo’s David. The Slave’s White House. Made...
Prodigal Father, Wayward Son – a Book by Sam & Gifford Keen
by Boysen Hodgson I read “Fire in the Belly” in my early 20’s. It was a powerful addition to my list of favorite personal development books, along with “The Book; on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are,””Way of the Peaceful Warrior,” “The Road Less Travelled,” and “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.” Yes, I was a young man searching. Sam Keen’s powerful...
40 Powerful Purpose Quotes from Across the Ages
by Brandon Peele Since the beginning of history, humans have had a deep relationship to their life’s purpose, and sought to gift future generations with this message, weaving purpose into art, philosophy, literature and religions. Our ancestors who heeded the call of purpose, who made their life’s purpose central, reached unheralded levels of achievement, fulfillment and spiritual realization. Need a lift? Need some inspiration?...
Guest Post: Spice Up Your Relationship with a Blind Date
Want to learn and experience something new with your partner? Try going on a “blind date”. Here’s how it worked for Michael J. Russer. – – by Michael Russer, originally published at the Good Men Project My partner and I wanted to do something different and adventurous for Valentine’s Day. So she had this idea about us going on a “blind date”. Where we would meet at a restaurant and bar as if being set up by our mutual friend “Bill”....
From Dad’s Toolbox
from the Lair of the Wildman There’s a wrong I’d like to right. The man I wronged is dead, so I am asking you to hear my truth in this regard. If it resonates, so be it, or, share your truth. I was 48 when I first heard of a Warrior Weekend and the idea that there were other men in the world that wondered . . . ‘is this it, is this what being a man is?’ was foreign to me. I was hungry for the company of men I...
The first stone
from the Lair of the Wild Man When my eyes opened this morning, my head had been working for some time already. I woke with a late-night conversation poking at my sensibilities and weighing on my heart. A man I have known only briefly through social media has begun to interject divisive, strongly rhetorical conservative talking points to my posts. We disagree fiercely on core issues. When I sit with this kind of conflict, I see the...
The Price of a Cubicle
from the Lair of the Wild Man Some years ago now, I danced with a bawdy band of bough-brandishing brigands. We performed under the name General Hardware and danced Border Morris, an ancient English/Welsh men’s folk dance with sticks. There was a particular event that opened my eyes and this is that story. It comes back to me whenever men wonder about the nature of the Wild Man. The evening was a cold one in early November and we...
|
     The ManKind Project® is a global nonprofit education and training organization dedicated to helping men find and live the best of who they can be as men. We support over 1000 men's groups in over 10 countries around the world. Our flagship training is the New Warrior Training Adventure. Over 58,000 men have stepped out of their comfort zones to make a better life for themselves and their families. |
