MINUTES of a MONDAY #142
Some things I came across that I hope might get your week up and running
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Slán - Niall☘️ **
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BRAIN FOOD: Men are Bastards
“Men are bastards” has long been a predictable refrain, and the sad thing is that many men have done a fine job of living up to the brief. This has led, in the world around us, in our culture, in our water, to a sort of bifurcation when it comes to masculinity. If you’re a man, you’re either toxic, like Andrew Tate, like Conor McGregor, like all those rugby players in their WhatsApp groups, like all the men in ‘Earth’. [A book by John Boyne]
Or, because labels of toxicity is what you fear most, you move to the extreme opposite of toxic, but the trouble with this is that over there you adopt the persona of the weak-willed and the limp-wristed.For many years the word has been that manhood, manliness, maleness, was inherently bad. How often now does the word “masculinity” come with the automatic prefix “toxic”? And yet could there be anything more poisonous to the male soul — and perhaps also to the female soul, and thereafter to society in general — than men who beat down any traits of maleness for fear of its being deemed inappropriate or poisonous? Men hating men means men hating themselves, and men who hate themselves are everywhere. There is a third path between these two dreadful extremes. The noble middle ground is available, and it is vast. Luckily, there’s another recent example from Irish literature that shows us exactly what that might be.”
Shane Breslin on masculinity that isn’t toxic
SOUL FOOD:
“Simplify, simplify, simplify!”
Henry David Thoreau on the hard part.
LOL:
Clinton Baptiste on the joys of dating an older person:
APPENDIX:
“We don’t tell ourselves ‘I’m never going to write my symphony.’ Instead we say, ‘I’m going to write my symphony; I’m just going to start tomorrow.”
Steven Pressfield, The War of Art
ANY OTHER BUSINESS (A.O.B):
That’s us for #142 my friend.
Thank you for stopping by and as always, mind how you go out there.
Slán agus beannacht - Niall