Manliness

Manliness

I uploaded the image above because it is a symbol of the Camuni of val Camonica in Italy. This is the symbol for Man (male).

The Camuni and Sabini are my ancestors.

I saw a disturbing report about this Book Manliness by some professor
and I began to think about the real men in my life

I am sure that I am not the only person who is uncomfortable with the state of Men in our society, we are violent, we are slipping behind women in every area of achievement and often we are violent and destructive.

But since I am a man I cannot escape my skin- When I think about men my thoughts often go to three men who formed my life and what they meant.

My Dad was your typical post-immigrant achiever who worked and worked and did not have an ounce of Alan Alda in him but he was always honest, clear and respectful. He was a Husband in the sense of husbandry- helping us grow or like a vintner pruning the vines. My grandfather for whom I am named, who arrived in New York with a trade and a back and built a life for himself. He lived by one simple life rule nothing was too good for people he loved or worked with him. and my Uncle from Italy who began WWII as a medic and when the Nazis occupied Italy in 1943 spent the next two years hiding. He was a mountain of a man and someone who will always be a man to me.

I realize that these gender conversations make good copy but I cannot help but believe that if more men were honorable our world would be better and if more boys knew men like my men they would be better.

It seems that women can gather and no one is afraid but when men do so there are problems either real or believed.

I hate that the word Patriarch has become pejorative.

Be it Abraham, Moses, Leonardo da Vinci, or Walt Whitman I like my Patriarch's. I love the matriarch's as well.

I hate that neo fascist yahoos like this guy who wrote Manliness can say stupidities.

But I have to say that Men and Women are different and in many ways it is a crisis of men that causes problems.