I have set the goal for 2013, at least the first half that is, to undertake several courses of study. I have wanted to study various topics for the last year or more and have never really put forth much effort. For the next six months I am going to see if I can actual study on a chosen topic and write about it, and apply it. If after six months I have actually progressed in my knowledge, then I will consider this a success.There is in every eighteen-year-old boy the desire to face death. We all want to be tested. We all want to know for sure whether or not we are cowards or heroes, and our youth puts us at a disadvantage. We think the only way we can prove our manhood is through some life-or-death situation on the battlefield. It isn’t until we are more mature that we realize that manhood has little or nothing to do with physical prowess or cowardice, with our ability or inability to kill. Our manhood can be understood through our relation to the earth and its creatures; and survival is not to kill or be killed but to understand our place, our part in nature, and play it out (p.5, Brown Jr., Tom. The Search. New York: Prentice Hall, 1980.).
What does this have to do with The Search and the quote? Well, good question. One of the three topics I have chosen to undertake is Manhood and heroism. The other two being Storytelling /Narrative Structure, and Spanish.
For years I have dabbled on the topic of manhood. I have read the occasional book, studied male roles as displayed in the Sunday Comics, and occasionally attempted to get in a fist fight to prove my strength and dominance only to quickly run away before my opponent gets off the floor and soundly pounds me. Ok, so I may be making some of that up. But the idea is conveyed: I have not taken the study seriously. As with Storytelling, I have always thought “Gee, sometime in the future I would like to learn more about this topic so that I am better versed in discussing it.” Only someday has never come. Well, someday no more my friends! I chose these three topics because they have been most on my mind of late and can clearly benefit me and my career. Now is the day. Carpe Diem and whatnot!
My first book of study on manhood is The Search. I love Tom Brown. He is one of my role models. His books greatly shaped my youth. I would sit captivated, listening to my Dad as he shared story after story of adventure in the wild as told by Tom Brown. And I thought, “these stories are great. And if Tom Brown is someone my Dad looks up too, then golly he can be someone I look up to.”
So what better place to start a course on manhood than the boy-man Tom Brown? And lo, five pages into the book is this incredible quote about manhood. Perfect! And he hits it right on. Manhood is so often portrayed as being physical. It is about the fight and struggle to survive, whether on the battlefield, on the street, in sports. A man is he who can kill the rest and be left standing, a king of the hill if you will. And I am tired of the that message being pounded into us. I am tired of the media asking why mass killings are on the rise while they glorify killing. As Brown points out, the world has got it wrong. Manhood has so much more to do with our relationships with each other, with creation, and with ourselves. A man is not someone who has killed and fought his way to victory. No, a man is someone who has conquered his inner demons and gained victory over himself. He is someone who understands the world and his place in it. He is not a killer. He is a defender of the sanctity of life.
Thank you, Tom Brown Jr., for getting that right and within the first five pages of your book.
