This month is the fortieth anniversary of the publication of James Dickey's book "Deliverance". A book that explores men challenging themselves both physically and mentally. Then of course they encounter the darkness of other men and discover the depths of their own baser nature. Men traveling into the wild has become well covered in the nonfiction market with books such as "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer or "A Perfect Storm" by Sebastian Junger however, in fiction this type of tale has gone out of fashion. The road map to manhood seems to somehow have become lost today.
I am happy to see that being a man no longer seems to require the clubbing to death of another man or the destruction of some beautiful part of nature but then I never believed that these things were the mark of a man. Something is missing though and I believe a part of what is missing is an exceptance of the dark, violent, nature in the recesses of each of our being. There is also missing the love of the natural enviroment and the sublime beauty found in art, music, creation. Men are a wild combination of destruction and creation but both sides of that nature seem to be derided today. A man needs to explore and understand all aspects of his nature to truly be complete and many men seem to be missing that oppurtunity today.
Text © Crownedstoat – All rights reserved
Nez-Perces war club courtesy of the United States Federal Goveremnt, Nec-Perces National Historic Park, Wikicommons - Public Domain
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