Society seems to have lost focus as to what a man is. They have allowed the media and the pressures of feminist organizations to define manhood and too many men have accepted this definition as standard behavior. Men themselves have created their own definitions of what a man is to be, but there are many trials in life that will challenge that definition proving otherwise.

Birth
A man is born, but as he lives and grows in a troubled society, he dies a child, and confused. Maintaining a sense of control as a man in such a society requires discipline and the ability to reason through life in many areas.

Family
A man needs a woman to balance his primitive being. He needs her for comfort, support, and to believe in him, understanding his plight as he struggles to provide for her and his children, which is the pride of his life. A man is complete when he can do these things. Any forces that seek to take from him this gift are a curse to him and he will fight the force unto death.

He loves his wife and will kill for her or about her. He protects against wolves (other males- - not men) that seek to take her from him. A man does not desire to take another man's woman, because he understands that his life is in danger. If he does not realize this, then he does not value life and can never be a man, husband, or father.

Community
A man sees all and knows all but keeps it to himself. He does not get involved with other people's business nor does he compete to destroy other men and their families in his community, but he desires growth in the community and not deterioration by malice.

A man protects the community like he does his family and challenges the enemy at the gates. He lies awake at night prepared for the enemy. He knows the generations and in what direction they are going and he encourages them toward the positive. He does this because jealousy has no place in his heart.

A man is not jealous of anyone or anybody. Either his friend, his associate, his wife or his child; jealousy has been defeated by faith, knowing that through effort and time, the gods shine on the positive. Jealousy however, will engulf itself within the soul of a man when it comes to his woman. If he loves her, he will, until death, be jealous over her, not for or of her.

A man can lose a friend and preserve his strength. He can be tossed from the group and accomplish the same goal. When the faithful betray him he and when the potential bails out, he cast his rod back into the sea, and never looks over his shoulder.

Education
A man educates himself. He knows that there is no end to knowledge and the measurement of knowledge does not end with a diploma. He reads because his soul is hungry. He thinks because his mind is thirsting. He speaks little and listens a lot. His mind and his soul determine his actions, nothing else.

A man is not driven by emotion or physical lust. He can refuse sex and reject any opportunities to form a harem or pimp his sister; the numbers does not define his manhood, but by the amount of love he receives from one woman and his ability to maintain and even increase that love. Yet his degree of knowledge and intelligence never overrides his ability to love.

Occupational Provisions
A man will work and always seek ways to earn his due. He does this not simply to live for the day, but to prepare for tomorrow and beyond for he and his family, and for those he loves, and for the building of a nation.

A man discovers his talents and skills and perfects them and uses them as a weapon against poverty and ignorance and sloth. He teaches others and helps develop their talents and skills and does not speak ill of the other because he knows not when he will need the other.

As An Elder
A man is an elder when he can point his finger in the direction of success and comfort and not down the road to destruction. When he accepts the fate that has befallen him whether good or bad and not attributes success or failure to anything but himself.

A man does not delight in his success by pointing out the failures of others. He understands that time and chance happens to all. Nor does a man discredit the successes of others to justify his failures.

A man can walk through a crowd of confusion and surface untouched. He can stand in the mist of humiliation and emerge confident. A man can stand against defamation and maintain his dignity, and he can withstand kicks while on the curb and retain integrity.

Fears
A man does not fear death. He fears oppression. A man does not fear intimacy, he fears homosexuality, nor does a man fear love, and he stands ready against temptation. A man does not fear authority, he fears ignorant men and contentions women in power.

A man does not fear the truth and a man is not a liar because a man is sure of what he knows and has no reason to lie. He sees no benefit in lying, but every benefit in truth. A man fears no other man (or male) and will confront when need be, he fears cowards because they will run to tell a lie.

God
A man draws inspiration from God and walks according to the Spirit, not according to the trends of the world. He knows this life has an end and another will begin, and he awaits the next prepared with the experiences of the present.

© 2005 by Cartel Q