Having never been a woman, I cannot really prove this theory, but I sometimes wonder if there is something about being a man that makes one crave adventure. The feel of freedom, action, and danger all wrapped into one exciting package thrills the soul of the man. In this day and age of political correctness, where we are careful to attribute a characteristic to one sex without also providing the same to the other, perhaps I’m treading on thin ice with some readers. Please trust it is not my intention to offend nor to dive into the complexities of what goes into gender or sexual identity. That’s a different topic for a different day.
I do wonder, however, if perhaps somewhere in our efforts to promote and provide equality to all genders (a very worthwhile pursuit with the greatest of intentions) we’ve stymied the natural/evolutionary desire for adventure in those identifying as men.
This has been a a battle for me in my adult life. As a young man, it was acceptable and even encouraged that I participate in “manly” adventures like camping, fishing, backpacking, climbing, sports, and other stereotypical male activities. But as an adult male, especially in my role as husband and father, that manly identity is encouraged to take on other characteristics, and necessarily so. In our modern age men share in the responsibilities of keeping a home and raising children. And we should! However, when we allow our identity as men to be represented solely by these characteristics and abandon those more traditionally manly ones, I believe we suffer as a result.
I have no data to back this up other than my own experience. I am happiest, more content, a better husband and father, when I provide myself the opportunities of adventure. On the flip side, I find myself more restless, insecure, and short-tempered when I allow the whole my identity to be wrapped up in the more day to day responsibilities of husband and father.
I am sure that even those readers identifying as females can use this as a point of reflection. When each of us humans neglects that part of us that makes us come alive, the whole of our being suffers.
This trip has served as a gulping of cool water for my malnourished man-soul. The freedom from typical responsibilities, the sense of self-reliance, the wildernesses in which we have intentionally placed ourselves; all those things have begun to provide me with an energy I have not felt in a great many years. I feel myself coming back alive and finding again the identity of adventurer I owned as a boy.
I am grateful for the days ahead that will not only continue to nurture this side of myself, but will allow me the time to formulate a plan to continue nourishing my “manliness” once we return to reality.
journeywithus 