 |
||
|
|
||
Chivalry
I
long for a world where goodness reigns, where the virtues of the male
gender actively challenge what is wrong.
The virtues of women are wonderful and do
their best to hold the world together, but men have to do our part too.
That entails discovering who we are and what purpose we have—as
men.
Surely that purpose has to be more than
personal greed, as many of us have been duped into believing. It cannot
be found in senseless war, where manliness becomes lost in killing and
destruction. It is not incivility, where undisciplined strength is used
to promote chaos. It is not competition, where men focus on how to make
others lose and win at any cost, rather then honest self-improvement.
It is not scandal-mongering, where media-hype would lead us, or ideological
brainwashing, where many political leaders find their support. Our purpose
is never found slumped over a bar or at the end of a needle.
We need something like a grasp of chivalry
in this world of gross distractions. Men need to wake up to their innate
and deepest virtues and start thinking for themselves. What can only be
described as a holy cause awaits us, with the fate of the world held in
the balance.
What are male virtues? The chivalry of western
culture provides a list: truth, strength, justice, patience, humility,
defending the helpless, honoring women, avoiding scandal and outrage,
self-control, courtesy, honor, and doing what is right and good. Do these
words sound archaic? Out-of-touch with reality? If they do, it is time
to ask ourselves: why? Who is really out-of-touch with the needs of human
existence? What qualities exist in us that replace these time-honored
virtues?
The freedom we enjoy in the United States
makes it possible for these manly virtues to flourish. Why do we choose
to ignore them?
There is much work to be done. There
are thousands of children starving to death every day. The insanity of
religious war that feeds on its own violence. Poverty. The pervasiveness
of greed. The death-trap of global warming. Over-population. Blind liberal
extremism and throwback conservatism—each demanding obedience. Even
a schism in the Church based on politics. These are serious threats that
deserve our undivided attention. Yet mostly we hear silence as things
only get worse. Where is our strength? Where is our resolve? We need to
mobilize men as well as women to change things.
This is a call to wake men up to the truest
call of manhood. For it is men who commit most crimes, who lead us into
war, who tend to wallow in incivility and ignore the problems around us.
It is men who originally defined corporate greed and political deception,
and mostly men who sustain them.
I
invite you to visit a web site dedicated to the propagation of male virtues
and the quest for self-improvement: www.chivalrynow.net.
