Men Naked In the Woods

Do we have to like the characters in a story we are reading?  Or do we have to like everything about our buddy or accountability partner?

  I believe that no matter how vile, one must have a part that we can relate and share empathy with. There, have been plenty of characters that might not be someone I would invite home to dinner. However, there must be a part of the character that is redeemable. or at least a hope that the character will become better in the end. The hope does not need to be fulfilled but if there is no hope than most likely the character will bore us in the end. We must also feel that the character shares a journey with us.  We must also feel equally yoked.  Our friend must not hold his character over us and make us feel like we are nothing and he/she is everything.   This will build towards a manipulation trap.  

Men Naked in the Woods: Reading Proverbs

I had my Bar Mitzvah in the backyard of my house on 421 Bowen Street.  The biggest question I asked: "What makes me an adult?"  "What equips me to be able to read Torah now?"  "What good are the proverbs?" "What good is Truth in my young mind?"  So this was my Breshit, my beginning.

Proverbs served as an instructional manual for a young man beginning his quest.  The elders of a tradition gave a young man a road map of the world, these are Proverbs.  The best way to read Proverbs is to let the overall message wash over you.  You will drown, if you attempt to live each point as a rule for living.  However, if you listen to them and let them wash over you, like a wave, then you will learn how to joyfully live.    

Elie Wiesel describes the Torah's Truth with a cut to the spleen:

It was with the twenty two letters of the aleph-beth that God created the world, Take care of them and they will take care of you.  They will go with you everywhere.  They will make you laugh and cry.  Or rahter, they will cry when you cry and laugh when you laugh, and if you are worthy of it, they will allow you into hidden sanctuaries where all becomes..."
Wiesel, Elie All Rivers Run to the Sea (New York: Alfred A Knopf 1995), 10.

Benjamin Franklin wrote,
What you bring away from the Bible depends to some exten on what you carry to it. 

 I have found that the best way to listen to proverbs is from an audio C.D..  Find a C.D. that the message will not be lost due to annoyance in the readers rendering.  

Men Naked in the Woods:

Here lies A little explanation of Men Naked in the Woods.  Robert Bly, the poet and activist, inspired me to dig deep into what it means to be a man in the twenty-first century.    Men have become weak due to lack of mature role models in our society.   We are in an age where the man have become "half adults."  A society created by "half-adults" is problematic because it "lacks leadership, daring initiative, creativity, and deep care about others."*   I am not a professional psychologist.  All I can offer is my personal experience with growing up.   I hope to utilize myths as well as the bible to dig deeper and grow more into my adult role.   

Last Tuesday, on Facebook,  I responded to Proverbs 21:5:

The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance,
but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.

Here is the entry I hit my head with the door of the chill blaster at work. The reason was I was trying to go too fast. There is a difference between haste and timely executed. Haste often leads to unwanted results like a concussion or a band aid on the head. Diligence is due and of a proper time, not a time where you are so pumped up you cause mistakes.