Identity Intersection: Masculinity, Maleness, and Machismo. Part One.

Being a Man is more complicated than it looks

Trigger Warning: In this day and age, isn’t the phrase Trigger Warning not offensive in and of itself? Especially if the following were to be about gun violence? Just wondering. It’s not exclusively, but it’ll get mentioned. Along with other dude-like things.

Well, here is the TW: There will be lots of Mansplaining in this piece. Leopards don’t change their stripes, right? Don’t freak out. Remain calm and just listen. To the voice in your head as you read. I don’t expect you to agree necessarily, but hearing out the other side is the foundation of rhetorical argumentative exercise.

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It’s You, Not Me!

Yours Truly circa 1999. Kickin the tires and lightin the fires.

Have you ever laid down in the middle of the street in the middle of the night and stared at the stars and avoided the cars? I strongly suggest it. It’s a sense of conditional freedom. You’re free until a car runs over you.

Kinda like life in America, right? For me, it’s not something I do much of, lying on the street. But the times I have done it, the experience revealed new and unfamiliar sensations.

The last time was in Big Bear. The number of visible stars was unfathomable. The air tasted like fresh pine. No sounds were manmade. My body was prone on a slab of asphalt, but my mind and soul were immersed in an ocean of blackness and starlight.

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retractions and corrections . . .

So about that Dear John Letter I wrote. Ill timing is a specialty of mine, don’t you know? The old axiom of never say never always bites me in the ass. Two nevers and an always in one sentence. I keep hammering those words into submission, don’t I?

So, I guess I’m jumping back into the frying pan, as it were. I assume you grant me permission to continue the metaphor? My writing has been pushed to the back burner as I move food into the first chair.

In my upwards journey, cooking has been a pillar of my success. It just so happens that it is the first among equals in my lineup of the five elements of life.

Life / Food + Music + Art + Craft + History = Culture (L/5e=C)

It’s quite remarkable that my continuing tumble upward results in the most unique and one-of-a-kind experiences of my professional life. I find my life an endless path, with so many incredible and amazing human beings within my orbit. (space analogy too!)

This playlist is a bunch of dude songs. Intentionally so. I love chick playlists too. Or all playlists, for that matter. I’m just naming it so I can find it.

My post is short because it’s summer. Jump in the pool. Drink a beer. Make some tacos. Life keeps unfolding right here before our eyes. Think about the men in your life. What do they mean to you? Everyone has a dad. And a Grandpa.

Stay tuned for part two.

Ric