Masculinity? 5 - Sages

REVIEW (Intro Pt. 2 , Pt. 3, Pt. 4): Continuing thoughts on masculinity and what is it. Through a lot of reading, discussion with friends and family, some contemplation on my part, and a couple programs at our church I am laying out a rough outline as I understand it and agree with some of the things I have read and heard and disagreed with others, ultimately forming my own opinion. Read the other parts and come back to the discussion. As a quick recap, we have discussed how Man was created to exercise dominion in the earth. But more than just conquer and subdue we have to make sure our world flourishes. God also commands us to settle down. Tend and keep. Patience and Hard-Work is a necessity to masculinity. And last time we looked at the need men have to save and deliver. Created in the image of our Creator, the great dragon-slayer, men carry a need for adventure and a beauty to rescue. Boys must learn they are growing up to fight in a great war.

SAGES - The sage is a man who is great in wisdom, and wisdom in Scripture is personified as a great lady. Sons are exhorted to constantly listen to her. As we look to the first part of Proverbs (1-9), we see that wisdom is a woman who disciplines boys. When a grimy little boy needs his knuckles rapped, she is the one to do it. If he heeds wisdom in her role as the strict school-mistress, he grows up to a certain measure of wisdom, and the lady wisdom becomes his patroness. And when a man has grown up to wisdom, he has become a sage. We all know the "cool old guy" who is quick witted, tells the best stories, and seems to have all the answers. Video games and TV aren't the reason behind that cool old guy.

We must therefore teach boys the masculinity of study, of learning, of books, of intellectual discussion. Too often we let boys drift into a situation where they pit one aspect of masculinity against another. When this happens, for example, a boy who naturally loves the outdoors can too readily dismiss software programming as effeminate, or, even worse, come to look down on poetry. Intellectual discipline, or as Peter put it, girding up the loins of the mind, is an important part of growing to manhood. Poetry is an extreme brought up on purpsoe because of the disdain it carries when used in relation with masculinity. Unfortunately poetry is not viewed as very masculine. That is unfortunate. All one needs to do is read the Psalter. Read 5 a day for one month, you'll have read through the book and you'll find adventure, love, courage, despair, hate, cowardice, and valor all together at one time. Most, written by a man who killed a giant with a sling shot at the age of 12. The actual King of Israel was shaking in his shoes and a 12 year-old harpist with a book full of poetry shows up and slays the giant. Masculinty.

But with poetry there are also books and reading...alot. And I'm not talking the latest and greatest "Leadership 101" and "Be the Best Manager Ever" or even "How to Live A Christocentric Life at Home, Work, and Church." Those better business books and the latest and greatest spirituality books have their purpose and work well. I am talking the literary classics. Shakespeare, Twain, Berry, Dostoevsky, The Red Badge of Courage, Grim's Fairy Tales, The Lord of the Rings, Old Man and the Sea, and Sherlock Holmes. Books and authors that immerse your imagination and inellect. Books with characters that come to life and teach life lessons. These literary classics are classics because when the book is done, you miss the characters and the adventure they took you on. You want more, there's a slight disappointment the book is done. As well, these books aren't one-time in your life reads and some of them can only be read with age and experience. Read Huck Finn to your son when he is young, let him read it again himself when he is 13 and encourage him to do it again at 20. See how different the story is to him, how he has grown up, how different he views Huck Finn. It is the same for all of them.

Reading is a lost art. Re-capture that.

But reading and homework and learning poetry isn't all. In boyhood, study looks suspiciously like digging a hole and then filling it up. There is an element of gamesmanship here too. Games like Chess, Poker, and Pinnochle can accomplish the same. These games remove chance and luck from the equation. The elements that bring you long-term, expected success in these games requires intelligence. The ability to process information, probabilities, next moves, and "read your opponent" all at the same time to produce a winning strategy doesn't happen playing Madden 07' or WoW and watching the Simpson. I know card games rely on the cards you have been dealt. But everyone at the table has been given the same chance and the options are limited to a finite amount. Your ability to figure out the odds and bet accordingly and play your cards accordingly is how you win. Anyone can get "lucky" a hand or two and catch a card on the river, but that success is fleeting and is gone the next time they play. Lessons can be taught around the dinner table whether there is a fork in hand or a Queen's bishop.


I'm not advocating that playing games and reading books requires a lecture throughout the time of the activity. Or that a review is necessary afterwards. I'm also not saying to teach a 3 year old the inner most workings of the chess board or the probabilities of catching a straight flush on the river, but don't be afraid to introduce it.

Game playing only goes so far. Do not substitute games for reading and poetry. Supplement them. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but rather painful. Afterwards, when life comes at you, you realize the effect it has had on you. Nowhere is this principle more clear than in the relationship of study in the early years to wisdom in the years of old age. And while the point is clear when we make it this way, it is not naturally visible to a boy who has to do a homework assignment when he can hear all the neighborhood kids playing stickball.

The connections must be made for him. Boys must therefore learn to be teachable, studious, and thoughtful. As well as learn to laugh at the Simpsons and look forward to the day he finally beats dad in Madden on a hail mary.

Next up - Glory-bearers ?