Play the Song with the Funky Break

My Teeth Weren’t That Good to Begin With

I grew up in Chicago in the 1960s. As a North Side kid, I was into the Cubs and the Blackhawks. In the winter I spent hours on the ice with friends and siblings and dreamed of myself as The Golden Jet: Bobby Hull. Sometime around the age of 9 or 10, I went to a promotional opening for some big box store and got Bobby Hull’s autograph on a black and white picture. I can still remember practically peeing myself as the great Bobby Hull smiled at me with his front teeth missing and handed me his photo.

“My teeth weren’t that good to begin with, so hopefully I can get some better ones.” –Duncan Keith, Chicago Blackhawks

Hull replaced his teeth with dental work as the years went on, but that tough guy look was iconic of “men” growing up. In the 2010 playoffs, another contemporary Blackhawk, Duncan Keith lost seven teeth in a single game and came back to ice to play 29 minutes and help the team to move on to the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Around the same time Keith was losing teeth, the “Intellectual Dark Web” was born. Originally minted as a humorous(?) metaphor, the IDW was, and remains, a hodgepodge of pseudo-intellectual ‘thinkers’ (represented by both sides of the political extremes) whose ideology was to question the mainstream media, politics and culture.

Today, a large focus of the IDW is to rail against what they call the “Feminization of men.” As a result, the modern gender discussions are red meat for these mental giants.

Training Wheels

Some of the people that were around in the nascent days of the IDW could be called intellectually curious. Intellectuals? Not exactly. Sounding smart doesn’t make you an intellectual.

Instead, the IDW morphed into a cash machine. Rather than offering men and young men authentic information surrounding mature manhood, they alternately chose the path of ‘merchandising.’ Like Yogurt in Spaceballs, it’s all about the “Merchandising.” Spaceballs the lunch box, Spaceballs the breakfast cereal. Spaceballs the flame thrower! “May the Schwartz be with you!”

The dilemma today is, who is speaking to young men who genuinely want to see these men grow up to be leaders and to know their own souls. The Manosphere is seducing young men and filling their heads with pseudoscientific jargon and nonsense. If the elders are not feeding these young men, they grow up hungry and can transform themselves into beasts.

The Character of a Man

“A man’s character always takes its hue, more or less, from the form and color of things about him.” – Frederick Douglass

The goal of this publication is to bring to light the people who are actively serving the young men of today. There are a host of brilliant and creative thought leaders in this movement and none of them are in it for the merchandising. We intend to bring in leading voices in the movement to build strong men through initiation and other means.

I have argued for decades that the measure of a man is not based on his toughness. While admirable and needed for basic survival, men are sold a shitty bag of goods from the time they are thigh high. Don’t cry, don’t show feelings, gird your loins and take the blows. This might get us to a Stanley Cup, but it is a terrible way to form relationships, raise children, deal with death or have any type of meaningful inner life.

In a recent podcast (Holiday Special Pt. 1 – Rediscovering Your Secret Beauty and Sharing Your Special Gift), Jack Kornfield was talking about one of his teachers who said (paraphrasing), “If we were able to look into each other’s eyes and see their secret beauty, truly see it…wars would end, and we would spend our time on our knees worshipping each other.”

Initiation is not about ‘softening’ men, it is about mature masculinity; Accountability, Integrity, Honor, being a man of your word. It is the duty of the elders to pass these gifts on the young men of this generation.

I used to tell boys that they were “Blazing white light in a meat suit.” At first, they did not always understand. But when you are working with a young man and you see his light start to really shine, you are blinded as his true brilliance begins to shine through.

Knowing oneself, emotional intelligence and trusting your heart is the pathway to building men of character. In a recent podcast interview, Arne Rubinstein talks about how uninitiated men remain trapped in the boy. We have far too many boys trapped in men’s bodies in today’s world. I could generate a long list, but; A) You know who they are (Just listen to them…they usually are the LOUDEST), and B) We know the problems…and this venture is focused on the SOLUTIONS.