16 Mar Why does the race of men fail?

I think about the statement in the beginning of Lord of the Rings; ‘and once again the race of men failed’ and I’m struck by this almost taken for granted theme that men will be unreliable. The bible has a verse that says, ‘woe to you who put your trust in men’ and many a woman will bear testament to those words.

But why? – What is the intrinsic issue here? – I got thinking about all this, and to be honest it really pissed me off!

Charles F. Hannell is responsible for making me begin to think about the cause of a matter as opposed to focusing on the aftereffects, which by that point is frankly too late.

So, what is the cause of men’s unreliability? I got to thinking about it and the answer tied so neatly into the message of The Idea of a Man™ that I concluded I have to write an article about it. – So here goes.

The theme of purpose and the need for a man to have purpose is riddled throughout men’s literature. It is also emphasised that trustworthiness is a result of a man living with purpose. So, what is the correlation?

It’s not unobvious, but it does create a sense of the imperativeness of this requirement.

When a man has purpose you can be sure where to find that man, and sure about what he will be up to if you know anything about him. This is because when we really embrace our purpose we will not have time for distractions, and we will not do anything to jeopardize our purpose.

If you are struggling to try to discover your purpose, this may well be because a true sense of purpose doesn’t come easy or cheap. In fact, the more sweat equity, the more it has cost you to come to a sense of purpose and directionality in life, the more you are likely to value your sense of purpose and the direction you have decided is right for your life.

Therefore, the people you have chosen to accompany you on the path are there for a reason, and they can rest assured that you’ll be about your business as opposed to off on some tangent, getting ready to shoot yourself in the foot.

A common predicament many men experience is a sense of drifting – just drifting through life with no idea what the point of it all is. This can happen mainly for one of two reasons; One, a man has not decided what he wants. Therefore, he lacks the intentionality to live a purposeful existence that resonates with his values and provides fulfilment, focus and direction. Or two, he does not have the confidence in himself to be all that he feels internally called to be. Therefore, he spends energy and time drifting in distractions unable to get traction on his objectives because he either feels unworthy and undeserving of a life of purpose and meaning, or is unable to muster the courage to step into the larger life his Soul is asking of him.

That last line is interesting language. ‘The larger life his Soul is asking of him’. James Hollis PhD talks about this a lot in his book; ‘Finding meaning in the second half of life’. ‘The life our soul is here to live through us’.

When we go on the required journey of self discovery to get to know our purpose, I believe it is essential to interrogate our Souls to know intrinsically what in fact She wants to accomplish through us. To speak like this alludes to separation between our Soul and another part of us. 

Of course you’ll have heard there is no separation, and all is one. Which is true. But due to the way we think – mainly due to the way life in our world and society condition us to think we begin to identify with the designations we are given after our birth like – our name, our nationality, our religion, etc. this all makes sense. But is deceptive if we hang our actual identity on the fragile constructs of our ego’s. I say fragile because our ego is a temporal construct when contrasted against the eternal nature of our Soul.

The Soul is the aspect of us which enables us to say we have Divinity within us. Therefore, awakening to the reality that this ambassador from The Divine exists within us and wishes to express themselves through us is an existential revelation. But I also believe it is the beginning of a state of awareness which aligns us with our truth, our purpose and our calling. 

In my experience, when I have neglected my Soul, my Soul has had to be quite insistent when trying to get my attention in revealing to me that the path of life I am pursuing has not got anything to do with why in fact I am here and what my mission is.

I’m reminded of the Rumi story of a King who sent a delegate to carry out a mission. The delegate went to the country he was assigned by the King to go to fulfil his mission. However, upon arrival he did a bunch of stuff then returned to the King who asked the simple question: ‘Did you accomplish the task I asked of you?’

The man (he’s obviously a man) replied , ‘We’ll, I did this and that and a third thing’ The King is frustrated now. He gets straight to the point; ‘But did you do what I asked of you?’ You can guess where this ends up. – ‘Off with his head!’

When I was religious, I was always told that gods will was likely to be something you didn’t want to do, something arduous and something which would require immense sacrifice otherwise it would not be worthy of the gods. 

However, as I grew up and went from religious to spiritual I began to recognise that Divinity is not stupid. Form denotes function is not a man made idea. The mission The Great Mother asks of us is simply to be ourselves. 

This is illustrated beautifully in the Marvel film Thor when Frigga says to Thor; ‘Everyone fails at who they’re supposed to be, Thor. The measure of a person, of a hero, is how well they succeed at being who they are’.

And the reality is if we are to end the litany of failure as men, I truly believe it begins with asking and answering ‘Who am I?’ then going on to ask ‘Where Do I Fit?’ The second question is all about discovering our purpose so that we can be who we truly are. This I understand to be The Divine’s Work’. 

And this is what the mission of The Idea of a Man™ is all about, creating quality content, and providing practical resources to aid men in discovering and realising their Unique Idea of a Man™, their ‘Why’ and their specific assignment tailored to who they are as distinct individuals.