As a boy, all I (and all my guy friends) ever wanted to do was find noisy, risky, roll-in-the-mud adventures (though in the winter we did play chess, a form of stylized warfare). We fantasized about battles — about being Bat Man or Super Man or John Wayne. Every stick was a rifle, every rock a hand grenade, every empty lot a new land to discover. We loved coming home for dinner tired and torn up.

Actually, the older I get, the more I realize men are just big boys, and nothing has changed. I have learned that men need challenges, actually live for them — not just a pick-up basketball game, but the kinds of things that offer high risk and high reward, with high value — whether they be spiritual, physical or intellectual.

I think that’s why I have been so taken with a book by John Eldredge, The Way of the Wild Heart, which talks about the good, positive, masculine side of what makes men what we are — not as threatening, dangerous or inane, high-fiving bozos, but as strong, decisive, self-disciplined leaders of themselves and their families, all with a strong Christian undertone. I recommend it highly.

My point: Gentlemen (and women, too, but I cannot speak for what motivates you), find something bigger than yourself, something worth fighting for (not just an extreme-adventure trip, but something with a purpose), and then throw yourself into it with all the roll-in-the-mud energy and enthusiasm you can summon. And have a ball. — jri

“Until a man learns to deal with the fact
that life is hard, he will spend his days
chasing the wrong things, using all his
energies trying to make life comfortable,
soft, nice, and that is no way for any man
to spend his life.”
– John Eldredge
(The Way of the Wild Heart)

“My Hero” Special Guest Author — John R. Ingrisano

I’m a clay-footed Christian, best defined by the tired phrase been-there-done-that. When asked to consider and write about my heroes and mentors, I stumbled a bit (those darn clay feet) because I realized I had few such folks, who I’d just as soon call models.