Tuesday – 06 January 2015
Day 6: Pick a quote from our 80-ish quotes on manhood and reflect on why it stands out to you. Does it reflect a man that you aren’t yet, but hope to be? Does one of them remind you of a great man in your life who you’ve tried to model? If you can’t seem to reflect on a single quote, just take the time to write out a few of them that you like. Doing so will keep them top-of-mind and perhaps lead to some thoughts later down the road.

It’s been something of “a day,” but I wanted to make sure that I did this. I tried to narrow it down to a quote, but there were just too many good ones. I’m also going to take up the last sentence of today’s challenge and write a few thoughts about them.

Here we go..

“A man’s ledger does not tell what he is, or what he is worth. Count what is in man, not what is on him, if you would know what he is worth—whether rich or poor.” –Henry Ward Beecher

Too often, we make much ado about what a person has, rather than who that person is.

Isn’t this one pretty self-explanatory?

“This is the test of your manhood: How much is there left in you after you have lost everything outside of yourself?” –Orison Swett Marden

What defines who you are?

 

Don’t expect things to be handed to you. Fight for yourself and achieve on your own. Accomplish the goals you set for yourself. But, when someone does give you something: Accept it with a grateful heart.

Joy. Wonder. Awe. With even the smallest of things. Why should we be expected give these up just because you get older?

I’m going to challenge this one a bit. I don’t think that we always want things to feel like an uphill battle, but I will agree that the sense of accomplishment that comes from conquering a challenge is usually pretty amazing.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have had a number of good examples of good men in my life. (A few bad ones, too.) And their examples have always been more helpful than platitudes.

Stagnation ruins many things, people, places, and things. I think that this item speaks not just to manhood, but to life, as well. Who wants to be the same person at 60 that you were at 40, or 20?

“A man should be able to hear, and to bear, the worst that could be said of him.” –Saul Bellow

To quote Ray Charles:

I’ve been abused
In my heart
I’ve been accused
I’ve been ‘buked
People talkin’ tryin’ to break us up, yeah
Scandlizin’ my name
They’ll say anything just to make me feel bad
Yes anything to make me shame
Bricks and stones may break my bones
But talk don’t bother me

One should not only be able to listen to the negative things that people say, but – if there is a measure of truth in them – learn and grow from them.

“Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you’re a man, you take it.” –Malcolm X

Brother Malcolm’s early teachings were often colored by his early life experiences and often came across as harsh and aggressive, but there was still truth in them. And this is one of them. There are things that are worth fighting for and not just sit idly aside and let pass you by.

“Life is a storm, my young friend. You will bask in the sunlight one moment, be shattered on the rocks the next. What makes you a man is what you do when that storm comes. You must look into that storm and shout as you did in Rome. Do your worst, for I will do mine!” –The Count of Monte Cristo

Yes, life will bring adversity. It’s life. That’s what it does. Face whatever it throws at you and bend without breaking. Then take whatever you went up against, learn from it, and put it behind you.

All that… AND I still made it before the day was done. I call that a “win.”

Namaste.