soldier, scholar, horseman, he...

Teddy Roosevelt was a man, but not just any man. He was the very model of a guy's definition of a masculine man. He was both politician and cowboy, soldier and peacemaker. He holds the distinction of being the only man to ever earn both the medal of honor as a soldier, and the nobel peace prize as a statesman. He wrote books, hunted in the jungle, and explored nature all at the same time. He was the original Chuck Norris. During an assassination attempt at a campaign rally, a man put a bullet in his chest. Since he wasn't coughing up blood, he surmised that his lungs were ok, and proceeded to deliver a 90-minute speech before going to the hospital. History has generally accepted all of this as part of the rough rider Teddy Roosevelt persona. Only, don't call him Teddy. Apparently he found it vulgar and felt it was "an outrageous impertinence" (yep, he even used big words like impertinence). Yes, Roosevelt was a man, much like how John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, and Chuck Norris are men. I'm reminded of a piece of the poem by W.B. Yeats, written in honor of a friend (and from which the title of this post was borrowed). I sometimes wonder if the poet had men like Roosevelt in mind when he penned these words:

Soldier, scholar, horseman, he,

And all he did done perfectly

As though he had but that one trade alone.

When I read stories and biographies about guys like Roosevelt, I tend to think that this guy's amazing, that he must be what a lot of guys aspire to be; basically, the model of manliness. I'm not sure if girls look at other women and think, that's a woman. She's the definition of what being a woman embodies (I don't think so?). For a lot of guys, we instinctively see others that may be more manly, exhibit more masculine qualities and think, woahhh, that guy's crazy. I think that's why guys like Bear Grylls (man vs wild) and Chuck Norris get the majority of their fans. Of course, not every guy thinks this is the ideal manliness, and so for those guys there are the Hugh Grants and the John Mayers, ones that can showcase the sensitive and/or musical side of guys. Of course we must not forget the funny guys and the sad-but-determined guys. With the world giving us so many different (and often times conflicting) images of what guys are supposed to be like, figuring out what kind of guy characteristics to espouse is pretty difficult.

Going off a previous post, I've been learning about how a man made in the image of God ought to be, while at the same time retaining a God-equipped sense of what it means to be a man. The problem is (at least for me), how do I fend off that impulse to want to be more like those particular men, to return to what the world has deemed to be the model of what a manly man ought to be? Every once in a while I'll watch man vs wild or any Denzel Washington movie and feel inadequate about myself as a man. Those guys are out there doing some pretty butch stuff, and I sit in a cubicle and work all day in front of a computer. Not exactly inspirational stuff.

The thing is, that isn't how God created me. Sure, I could try to pursue that kind of masculinity by attempting to be more like that guy ( maybe...Roosevelt's pretty crazy...), but it's not what God may have intended for me. How do I know? I don't know for sure; however, my (occasionally flawed) logic is this: for me, trying to be masculine in the way like the guys in tv/movies (Denzel charging on the fort in Glory, Bear Grylls getting water from his own poop, etc.) the main motivation is to look and feel better about myself. It's a self-centered motivation to become more masculine. Basically, it's in some ways trying to glorify myself, whereas God wants us to glorify Him.

Of course, coming to this realization alone is only maybe the first 10% of a lifelong journey. In essence, it doesn't really mean squat if I can come to this realization. What I choose to do with this realization is much more important than actually having the realization itself. It's like the Israelites in Egypt. It took them so long just to be persuaded by Moses to trust in God enough to get up and leave Egypt, and even that took ten plagues and some serious arm-twisting. Then it takes the Israelites another forty years of wandering in the desert for them to learn to obey God fully and make Him the center of their lives, and even then it was a constant struggle to keep them in line.

For me, trying to discover what God has intended for me to be as a man is something I should have done a long time ago, but the journey itself is what I would characterize as the full measure of the experience. It's not like I'm going to finish this book, and there, now I know what it means to be a man. No, I don't think that's the intended purpose of the book or the journey. Rather, it's intended to make me aware of the journey that I'm already on, and to make me understand and take and active part in the experience. Ok this isn't exactly chapter three from the book, but rather something that's been on my mind recently.