Good For You, Young Man
Have you heard of this story? A young man from Iowa, named Joel Northrup, declined to wrestle a young lady in the Iowa High School State Wrestling Tournament. He lost by default and the young lady he was supposed to wrestle, who won by default, moved on in the tournament. This was the first time in the 85 year history that a female wrestled in the state tournament in Iowa. This year, not only one girl, Cassy, but two girls made it. The other young lady was named Megan.
Joel said that he didn’t believe that boys should wrestle girls. I agree with him. It’s inappropriate. He said, “I have a tremendous amount of respect for Cassy and Megan and their accomplishments.” For Northrup, it doesn’t appear to be a fear thing; he’s not afraid of these girls. He was 35-4 in matches this year and has already had success in Iowa in previous years. It’s a matter of principle for him.
“Wrestling is a combat sport and it can get violent at times,” said Northrup. “As a matter of conscience and my faith I do not believe that it is appropriate for a boy to engage a girl in this manner. It is unfortunate that I have been placed in a situation not seen in most other high school sports in Iowa.”
Here’s a bit from his coach…
What does he mean by a “matter of my faith?” What does being a Christian man have to do with not wrestling a woman? (Just writing that sentence seems silly to me.) I’d say that it goes back to our creation as men. It speaks to the heart of a man. Deep inside every man is a sense of wildness, a rugged “warrior” drive and our natural inclination towards adventure. There’s nothing natural inside a man that says “I should my brute strength to pin a woman to the floor to win a tournament.” In the history of wrestling, dating back to the ancient Greeks, men and women never wrestled one another. In fact, women never wrestled at all. Females wrestling is a pretty new invention.
It’s a weird proposition, having to wrestle a girl. I should know… I wrestled two girls in middle school. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the courage that Joel had, to say “I default”. The young ladies that I wrestled in middle school were sweet girls, and pretty feminine, they also happened to like to wrestle. I’m not really sure why.
Some people would then ask, “Dave, what if your daughters came to you and said, “Daddy, I want to wrestle.”?” What would I say?
I’d say no. It’ll be a ‘no’ if they come and ask me to be a boxer. It’ll be a ‘no’ if they come and ask me to be an altar server at Mass. It would be ‘no’ to a lot of questions. It’s not authentically feminine for women to do things men are naturally inclined to do. I’ve written about this a lot – we (men and women) were created with equal dignity, but separate roles. It’s NOT a bad thing, it’s a GREAT thing! When men do what they were created for and women do what they were created for IT WORKS! If that gets all screwed up, everything falls apart.
When I write posts like these, I typically get at least one feminist email spewing hate towards me and this view point (which isn’t solely mine – but that of the Church as well). I get called all sorts of names and get blamed for being a chauvinist and hateful and harsh and intolerant and so forth. I welcome those emails because it creates good dialogue. It’s not about some notion of equality, that a woman should be able to do whatever a man can do. It’s about the notion of order. So, if you read this and disagree, let me know.
TrueMan up!
“What Do You Want Your Dash to Represent?”
I just saw this ESPN Documentary about Tim Tebow. It’s going to be on ESPN in a just a little bit (5pm Mountain Time), but if you’re not reading this right away (which most of you won’t be), I’m sure that ESPN will replay it.
It looks interesting, but I don’t have ESPN, so I won’t be able to see it right now. As I watched the trailer, I had an eerie feeling in my gut, especially when they were showing him in the stadium after a game and the band girl screamed “I touched him!” as if his “cloak” was able to heal. The trailer really depicted him as some sort of savior. Seems to be a weird mix of Tim Tebow’s dedication and determination, even against extreme odds, and an idolization of him as a super-human. Watch the trailer below and let me know if you felt the same way.
Tim Tebow is a good man. He is devoted to his walk with Christ and does great things for the community. He inspires many and is a ray of hope in our world. Good job, Tim.
He has an awesome quote in there, “what do you want your dash to represent?” This quote is important for all of us to think about. 
He was saying that each of our tombstones will have the year we were born and then will have the year we died. In between these numbers will be a dash. The dash represents the years of our life. “What do you want your dash to represent?” is really asking the question “What is your life all about?” That’s why I posted this video. It’s a great question to ask yourself. Are you a man of great integrity and character? Are you a man of virtue? A you a holy and devoted man? Are you constantly trying to get better? Are you constantly trying to grow? What sort of legacy are you leaving? If yes, your dash will represent greatness. If not, it may represent something else.
This would be a great video and topic to segment into another post about “cultural manliness”, but that’ll have to wait.
TrueMan up!
He Lost It
Maybe you saw this video from about 10 days ago. It’s video of a minor league hockey coach who goes ballistic on the referee about a bad call against one of his players. The coach is Jim Playfair, which is sort of ironic, considering. Be sure to watch the folks in the stands, as well as the players to the coach’s left laughing at him. Take a look.
If you can’t view the video, click HERE.
What’s amazing is that in our culture, this sort of behavior is glorified. Although collectively, we think things such as “what a crazy man” or “that guy’s goin’ nuts”, we watch it and continually let it happen. This particular video has been viewed over 555,000 times, and is merely one version of the incident. The fact that this coach lost his cool like this shows that he’s not virtuous in the area of prudence, temperance or justice. (A TrueMan is virtuous.) I wonder what would happen at my office if someone acted this way.
I watched a few videos discussing this outburst, and one that caught my attention was a radio personality that said, something to the effect of, “this is a coach expressing emotion. He’s defending his player, showing some emotion. I don’t think it’s that big of a deal.” In fact, the radio guy went on to call it “great”, that this coach did what he did. Well, Mr. Smart-Radio-Personality-Guy, a TrueMan controls his emotions and doesn’t lash out like Mr. Playfair. This was not great.
TrueMan Up!
Opening Day 2010
Today marks the start of the 2010 Major League Baseball season. Best of luck to all the teams out there, especially to my Pirates, who need lots of help! There’s something about heading out to the ballpark on a summer day, at least for those of us who like baseball. If you aren’t a baseball fan, that’s fine… this post isn’t about baseball, per se. Here at TrueManhood, we wanted to do a “compare and contrast” between baseball and manliness.
- Baseball is a game. Manliness isn’t.
- Baseball is played during the summer. Manliness is always.
- Baseball players can “mess up” 7 out of 10 times at bat over their entire career and be considered a Hall of Famer. Manliness can’t sustain those numbers.
- Baseball is about trying to win most of the time. Manliness strives to “win” all the time. (“Win” here means to be a TrueMan.)
- Baseball allows men to throw tantrums, kick dirt, scream, cuss, chew and throw drink coolers. Manliness never stands for that sort of behavior.
We could continue on for hours with this sort of thing. I’ve got nothing against baseball, I enjoy baseball, especially when I get to play the game. I grew up playing from an early age into my adult life, I take my family to the ballpark regularly and I really enjoy the playoff season. What we need to be careful about, and this goes for everything in life (other sports, the Hollywood mentality, the online community, etc.) is to take baseball in using moderation. Manliness, however, we should take in with excess! (Remember, manliness means living a virtuous life!)
Man up!
7 Days of Super Bowl Stuff – SBXLIV – Day 2 “Crowning a Champion”
This is my latest article on iibloom.com, posted Feb 1, 2010:
The countdown has begun; t-minus 6 days and counting until the big game. Super Bowl XLIV is upon us, one of the biggest spectacles in all of sports and entertainment. The anticipation of the game is on the minds of many sports fans across the country. The anticipation of the commercials, which might be the larger anticipation, is on the minds of television fans and of “people who like parties with lots of food.” In the end, there will be a winning team (the champions) and a losing team. It may be the team you are rooting for, it might not. 50/50. Win: go down in history. Lose: be forgotten.
It’s easy for us to get into the stereotypical (“dumb ox”) mindset when it comes to football…”ugh…me like football, mmm, smash, kill, score, win…ugh.” It’s easy to yell at the television, even though we know they can’t hear us and that the play we’re yelling about is already history. It’s easy to stuff our faces full of greasy food during any given game. It’s easy to become involved, in an unhealthy way, in the fantasy of the game. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing intrinsically evil about football, and in the right context, is perfectly normal and healthy, however, we should guard against a few tendencies that are common in our society.
- We must realize that football is a game and has no bearing on what our goal in life should be – getting to Heaven.
- We shouldn’t try to live (vicariously or otherwise) through our favorite football team or all-star players.
- We should never allow football to take precedence over family time.
- We should never allow football to take precedence over our responsibilities.
- We should “consume” football in reasonable, moderate amounts.
Maybe football isn’t your thing, and you could care less about the Super Bowl, or the commercials. That’s fine. Substitute the worldly thing in your life that you enjoy the most for the word football in the five sentences above. (Shopping, Watching movies/television, Going to concerts, etc.)
Reporters often ask coaches what their “game plan” is and if getting to the Superbowl was in the plan from the beginning. What a ridiculous question! Of course it was in their plan, it’s every coach’s plan, and it should always be their plan as long as they’re coaching! No coach, or player, ever goes into a season playing for second-best. The goal is always to win! Liken this to our goals in life. If we go into our season without a game plan, without a set of plays and without the playbook, we’ll easily be defeated. We should go into the game of life with the goal of winning.
Our “season” is our life. The “game plan” is our daily plan of how we’re going to grow closer to Christ. The “set of plays” are our everyday prayers, actions, choices and the Mass and our “playbook” is Sacred Scripture. If we set a goal of achieving the title of “champion” (a Saint in Heaven), we’re much more likely to be granted that salvation than if we never decide to shoot for anything in life. Set your goal towards God.
Many coaches are constantly telling their players to be humble, play hard and to not underestimate their opponents. They realize that their team isn’t perfect, while at the same time continuing to shoot for perfection. Their positive and optimistic outlook guides their team towards greatness. We should all be shooting for greatness too. God wants our best, given freely to him, in all we do.
In the little things (hosting a Super Bowl party, being a guest at one, making comments about the plays, the calls or the commercials) during the game (and always), be aware of your words, your actions and your thoughts. A true follower of Christ never makes someone call into question his motivation, his intent or his character. Give God your very best and you’ll be crowned a champion!
Man up!
Worshipping the ESPN God
Here is my latest article on iibloom.com. The title is “Worshipping the ESPN God”.
CLICK HERE FOR THE ARTICLE, or start reading below…
“We are in the time of year when it is quite easy to become enamored by the lure of sports. The post-season is in full-swing in Major League Baseball, football season is flying at us from all sides (both the National Football League and College Football) and the National Hockey League recently kicked off their season. The National Basketball Association will be tipping off in a matter of weeks and NASCAR and the Professional Golf Association are both going strong. There is no other time on the calendar when all of these sports are played at one time. If you are a sports-junkie, you love this time of year. For many of us, sports have always been an important aspect of our lives.”
Continue reading HERE.
Man up!
