It is a fine time to celebrate the masculine! I wrote this story many years ago and never did anything with it .... until now. Enjoy!
We took our seats up in the balcony of a crowded auditorium to see what hundreds have been eagerly anticipating: a group of tap dancing Australian men in work boots exploding on stage in technical brilliance, energy, rowdy humor and outright fun.
I had never seen such a display of pure masculinity expressed and condensed into two hours! It was totally delightful (see TapDogs).
That one performance gave me a whole new direction and perspective on masculinity and how it is portrayed today.
How could one define masculinity today? Strength, vigor, boldness, committed focused effort, seeing the power in purity and the purity in power; masculinity as the ability to hammer out details into expressions of grace, beauty, form and function; as an expression of being able to stand, to be upright, the fathering qualities of wisdom, protection and guidance and the childlike qualities of exploration and breaking down barriers.
Masculinity is often coupled with femininity in an expression of completeness. When one adds to the above collection of masculine qualities, the feminine qualities of intuition, spiritual growth, freshness, the birth of new ideas, creativity, dignity and refinement – a beautiful and undivided sense of life is gained.
Taking it even to a higher realm, we can understand God as the source of all masculine and feminine qualities; we can see God as our Father Mother. Mary Baker Eddy, in her classic best-selling book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures talks about God in just this way. “Father Mother is the name for Deity, which indicates His tender relationship to His spiritual creation. (p.332)
She also writes, “Union of the masculine and feminine qualities constitute completeness. The masculine mind reaches a higher tone through certain elements of the feminine, while the feminine mind gains courage and strength through masculine qualities.” (ibid. p 57)
So what would try to tear down these concepts of true manhood? A wrong premise of what manhood truly is.
In the book of Genesis from the Bible, we have two accounts or premises of creation. In the first chapter, we have God, creating male and female in His image and likeness, created at the same time equally, with no partiality or hierarchy.
In the second chapter, we have the premise brought forth by the Adam and Eve story. Here man is portrayed as weak and vulnerable to temptation, shamed and needing to give up something in order to have a companion.
From the second chapter’s premise, comes a portrayal of masculinity degraded, masculinity that is brutal, domineering and egotistical. From this premise grows the idea that we live in division or duality, in a belief that one can take away the good of another, a belief that good is limited which gives rise to competition in which there is only one winner and there must of necessity be a loser.
This premise is illusive. As we replace this with the premise of man in God’s image and likeness, partnering with the feminine, the role of masculinity becomes stronger, purer, based on an honest conviction of all individuals’ God-given rights toward full expression.
Today, as the elevation of womanhood is emerging in many cultures, we are also seeing the redefinition of the role of men, who can be empowering to both men and women alike.
This first chapter of Genesis helps us to understand that there is one God, embracing the masculine and feminine qualities, the fathering and mothering qualities. We have a healthy base to see that there need be no dualism in our relationships with one another. Our pure sense of the masculine qualities expressed today, do much to forward our progress, as much as by having a purer sense of the feminine qualities expressed today.
This new premise transforms thought and we can celebrate masculinity in its true light – a masculinity that does not dominate, but equalizes the sexes; does not compete, but strengthens and refines; is not aggressive, but is powerful, strong and lasting. And masculinity, when coupled with the feminine, presents a balance in life, reflecting an infinite Father Mother God.
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