Saving the World

I'm off to staff a men's training this weekend, Bush. I think you'd be interested in it, so let me tell you a little about it before I go. It's in good part about that ancient warrior sleeping deep inside our genes, and how that warrior can--and all too often does--run wild in the contemporary world. If wisely used, though, in full consciousness, it can prove a strong, stablizing and protective force. It's important for the future of the planet that we learn this. Your sword, Bush, is the combined power of the United States military force. It behooves you to wield it in wisely, and never in a show of power for the sake of power.

This weekend's training is one of many offered by the International ManKind Project. I myself got involved twelve years ago, when I was going through a lot of anguish in my life, as we all do, from time to time, and needed help. A friend happened to mention the weekend to me at a party, and something about it called to me immediately. I signed up blind, and went through one of the most challenging--not to say harrowing!--experiences of my life. Writing about it later, I described it as a "boot camp for the emotions."

I've been on staff myself quite a number of times since then, and it's always a uniquely rewarding experience. I can't tell you much about the blow-by-blow, but it's a very intense two days that demand almost everything they've got, physically, emotionally, spiritually, from both participants and staff. I regard it as vitally important work, because there's so much masculine energy going sadly awry in the world today. We wade crotch-deep through the morass of blood that men have spilled, and mostly for men's reasons: power, self assertion, greed, ambition, anger, revenge… The thing is, Bush, there's nothing wrong with the energy itself. It's all good. But it can easily get misused.

I believe that we all inherit a very deep memory along with our genes; that, for men, the ancient instincts--to hunt, to protect, to generate, to procreate--have not disappeared, but rather that their expression in the modern world often takes inappropriate and dangerous forms. They take the form of aggression, obsessive competition, the drive to dominate. When frustrated, they often mutate into negative feelings like anger, fear, anguish… The feelings in turn, because we're trained to think them inappropriate, get stuffed down inside, below the level of consciousness, and mutate once again into ulcers, addictive behaviors, sudden, irrational outbursts of uncontrollable resentment and rage. Often aggravated as a result of wounds incurred in childhood, they can easily take charge of our lives without our even being aware of them.

The challenge is to learn to acknowledge those buried feelings and turn them, instead, to our advantage. Anger and fear can be good friends, for example, once they're no longer in control. Some men have killer instincts; with consciousness and training, those instincts can be channeled into slaying some of the real dragons out there in the world, rather than themselves, or those they love. It's a matter of learning to keep the shadow out in front of us, rather than letting it operate us, like puppets, from behind.

I'm saddened, sometimes--often, Bush--by the damage I see done by men who lack the consciousness to see themselves with clarity, and who succumb to ancestral instincts in a world that can no longer tolerate them. Remember Saddam, Bush? Remember Bin Laden? Hitler? Stalin? Kim Jong Il? The Janjaweed? Or, closer to home, the Boston Strangler? Scott Peterson? Those sports players, and fans, who lose their heads and end up in a brawl? Those fathers lost to their families because of their addiction to work, or alcohol, or drugs, or women? Those men who destroy their own lives, and the lives of those they love because of their inability to trust, or to commit?

These are the kinds of things we're talking about, Bush. Men usually come to us when they reach the end of their tether, when they know that something is terribly wrong with their lives, and want to change them. Men who are lost, with no sense of where they're headed. Men who are unable to love or trust themselves, or anyone else around them. It's surprising how many of them this work can help; how many doors we open into hope. Because there are no miracles, Bush, as I'm sure you know. Just work. Just doors opening to new hope, and work to do to get there.

We don't pretend to have answers. We don't pretend a man can be transformed in the course of a single weekend. We just try to open that door, and invite each man to step through, if he has the guts, and continue with his life's work with a clearer sense of who he is, and what he's given to do. We call it--perhaps a shade pompously, and yet with a real sense of dedication: "saving the world, one man at a time."

So, wish me luck, Bush. Wish you could be there with us. See you Monday. For more information about this weekend, feel free to visit the website of the MKPLA.