The Tin Man Saga

    “Most men run away from the fight because they don’t want to answer the inevitable question…Am I one of the weak ones or am I one of the strong?”...unknown   Growing up in a small country town outside the Houston area I met many boys that would go to school along with me. I learned early on that boys come in all shapes and sizes. Not necessarily in physical appearance but in likes and dislikes, tough as nails and some as strong as flower petals, but there was one thing that we all knew inside…country boys never back down from a fight. It didn’t matter if we were getting an outstanding butt whooping, you never gave in and you never quit.   In reading the quote above, it reminded me about my growing up years and what I had learned that would carry me through life. Fighting, come to find out, used to be a normal part of a man’s development, expected I guess one could say, and it was there to create or enrich inner strength. But since the days of my youth, th...

  That Masked Man As my mentee group of young men finished up the other night and after they had all left, I sat alone on the patio just contemplating the evening’s discussions and singular topics of conversation. As I thought about the laughter and playful jokes cast upon each other, I realized something. There are times when the guys speak a lot and then there are times when even though they don’t speak a lot, what they do say is full of information. Many camouflaged hints, and innuendos that if I didn’t believe and practice in listening to what wasn’t said, I feel I would have missed so much insight into their emotional and spiritual wellbeing. Words matter and it is critically important when speaking with men to listen to and read between the lines. As personal stories go, without someone listening to them, their story would just move on without anyone giving it a second thought to hear the words which may indicate the “why” they were said to begin with. It would have been my...

  Our Life In Pieces   I’ve spoken to this topic before but I came across something that made me want to remind you of who you are. I came across an article this morning and it caught my attention because it is about an area of life that I have deep interest in. So, I would like to start with this quote from the book by Jack Myers, The Future of Men. He states, “Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders are tapping into what I’m calling a “Lean Out” generation of young, discouraged and angry men—men who are feeling abandoned by the thousands of years of history that defined what it meant to be a real man: to be strong; to be a provider; to be in authority; to be the ultimate decision maker; and to be economically, educationally, physically and politically dominant…”. In my efforts of working with men, it dawned on me some years ago that this is relatively true. Within the young men I speak to that come for advice or ask about meeting for coffee, the one trending facet of a conversat...

  The Hiccuperuptions   Guys, have you heard of or has someone ever asked you if you’ve had the “hiccuperuptions” lately??   If so, what or how do you normally respond? Is it the old stand there motionless with question marks appearing in your cornea? Or do you actually say something? Regardless of your reaction, eventually you ask that question that sums everything up, ”the what?? What the heck is that??” Here’s where you receive the answer but almost immediately you think, “seriously? You disturbed my valuable time only to give me this silly answer? What a waste of my time”. But afterwhile, and although you thought the answer was silly, there was something about the explanation that later got you to thinking about it and maybe even got you to realize a little more about yourself. Something you really hadn’t noticed or ever thought about since it’s never been on your radar. Maybe it even made you curious enough to wonder if its’s only something you do, or do other g...

  The other day as I was waiting for the release of classes, I observed several young boys playing together on the playground. Sitting there, my mind was teleported back to a place in time that I remember the neighborhood kids playing together in my back yard.  photo by Joao Rafael I was raised in a certain part of the city, closest to the river and therefore our back yard was not exactly flat, grassy, and without thorns. Regardless of what small obstacles we faced, we always found a way to make things fun and enjoyable. We would pretend my back yard was a fortress and castle we had to defend against the bad guys. It was an army war zone where children would find the perfect shaped stick to become our Luger pistol or machine gun with which to annihilate the enemy. There were about 12 kids playing and so we had a come up with two teams to portray the bad guys and the good guys, then after a while, we would switch sides. It was no big deal to disagree as to which side one would ...

  Brrrr…Texans in my area have never experience cold weather like this before and it seems that we are all in a panic!! The forecast for Monday is 5 degrees and personally, in all my years I’ve never experienced this kind of cold before even when we vacationed in Colorado. Yes, I know I sound like I’m complaining and whining…well I suppose that I am, so sad too bad. The thought hit me though as I look around and speak to a few friends, the public in general, does not know what to do or how to prepare for these abnormal temperatures. The media is providing some advice on preparations for ourselves, our homes, our pets and pipes which is all very important. However, the real question I have is why do we wait for right before the freeze blankets us to actually act on a plan of how we are going to combat and avoid being one of its victims?  As I engage my devotion this morning, I got a mental picture of how I personally, and others I know, somehow wait until we are right dead set,...

  I caught the tail end of a documentary about Sasquatch, or more commonly known as Bigfoot and how so many people have seen it, but to this day remains elusive and unfounded.  I do not know if you believe or even have an opinion about the big guy but, what comes to mind when you hear anything about the myth of Bigfoot? Do you envision a hairy creature, 10 ft tall, and bigger than any creature that walks on two legs, or perhaps a vision of mystique and something wild? What if we could be like Bigfoot, in that we could hide out in the wild, in a place so hard to track down that we would be alone for a bit? Sound intriguing? I know that sometimes we want to get so disconnected from life, and we don’t want anyone to talk to us or locate us. A wish so powerful that we just want to be left alone to do whatever we want to do, need to do, to put together some strategy to sort life out. That place truly is a desire for many men, and I believe most men desire to have the ability to b...