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In many cultures around the world, boys around age 8-10 are taken into nature and guided in a ritual by the older men.
This serves to support boys to step into their manhood, to find their courage and strength, to understand the responsibilities of becoming a grown-up.
Were you ever explicitly guided from boyhood to manhood?
Were you taught what it takes to care for yourself and others, in the midst of a changing and challenging world?
If you were, I am deeply grateful.
Most men in our modern culture have not been guided. And thus have lost part of their strength, grit, and well-being.
Jeffrey Erkelens is the author of The Hero in You. It is a powerful book written for boys, as well as for men who struggle to feel their place in the world and their sense of being a hero on their own journey.
In this conversation we discussed:
• The initiation boys need to become men who are not only successful but fulfilled
• An evolved conception of manhood
• The deadly “dragons” that take you from your unique path onto one of the following
• expectations and shoulds
• The ways in which men ARE needed in the modern world
• The life forces a man needs so he can accomplish his goals and contribute to a cause of his choosing
Jeffrey references an African proverb: “If we don’t initiate the young they will burn down the village to feel the heat.”
Are there situations or relationships you have “burned down” in your life, perhaps feeling unguided or misled, or maybe out of a desire to feel your own aliveness in a world that feels deadened?
If so, check out Jeffrey’s stories here and then visit his Facebook page to get a copy of his book.
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Have you read the original anthology that was the catalyst for The Good Men Project? Buy here: The Good Men Project: Real Stories from the Front Lines of Modern Manhood
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Photo courtesy Shana James.
This post previously published on Shana James and is republished with the permission of the author.
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