Member-only story
For My Brothers
Steps on my path to embracing a more mature masculinity
This is a story for my fellow men out there. You are my brothers, and I see you struggling.
Where I feel it most intimately is in the bright eyes of you, my teenage boys, who are just now are starting to dip a curious toe in the turbulent waters of adulthood. You are confused by the barrage of messages about what it means to be a man. I know how young men react to threats to their masculinity, and I’m doing my best to teach you what few things I know.
I read it in the soulful solitary voices of men in online forums trying to find love, companionship, or even a reason to just go on living. You feel haunted, ignored, disenfranchised. I worry about you finding peace and purpose, and what you might do if you cannot.
Where I hear it the most is in the chorus of cynical and angry cries from my brothers who are responding to perceived slights and injustices. I see you, my brothers, and I hear you loudest of all. I imagine myself seeing the world through your eyes. You are grappling with a social fabric that is altering the very foundations upon which you have built your lives. You see words like honor, duty, and respect being received with doubt and derision instead of being accepted as a mantle of responsibility adults should aspire to. Your fealty to…
