National Men’s Day: A Stream of Consciousness about Masculinity

To be a man is first to be human:

1. To be a man is to seek virtue.
2. To seek virtue, a man must seek adventure. Courage requires risk.
3. To be a man is to build.
4. To build is to restore the past or to create the future. 
5. To be a man is to destroy and incorporate that which opposes building. The fur of the predator becomes the pelt of the hunter. The cave of monsters becomes a home. The fire becomes a tool.
6. To build is to reason. To be a man is, therefore to seek truth.  

To be a man is inherently sexual:

1. To be a man is to love women.
2. To be a man is to find a woman.
3. To be a man is to be desirable to women.
4. To be a man is to be desirable, in particular, to the woman. 
5. To be a man is to not be a woman.
6. To be a man is to be strong, durable, and steady.
7. To be a man is to fight. Man builds and destroys, woman builds and sustains.
8. To be a man is to need the company of men apart from women.

To be a man is tribal:

1. If a man needs the company of other men, then their families become a tribe.
2. To have a tribe is to have honor.
3. To have honor is to know shame. Men shame other men when their behavior is unbecoming of their status, family, the group norms, or the truth. 
4. To have a tribe is to be wary of danger.
5. To be a man, then, is to preserve the old ways. For just as to be human is to build the future, to be a man is to ensure that the progress of the past is not lost.