If you haven't read the book SANCTION by Roman McClay, you are doing yourself a disservice. The opening alone is what inspired this work.
In the 1980's and 90's The U.S. Forest Service implemented a program to control wildfires. Seems honorable enough, but they didn't account for the fact that nature herself already had a plan in place and that their intervention was only going to make matters worse. Much worse, in fact.
Wildfires are a natural occurrence in nature, Dried underbrush gets hit by lighting and boom, wildfire. With the passing of the seasons, the leaves falling and trees dying, the fuel for those fires build up and literally become a tinderbox. Left alone, those fires burn until the fuel is spent creating whats known in the forestry and fire service as a FIREBREAK. This is imply a burned out space where the fuel once sat and is now devoid of that fuel. If another fire should break out, it would only spread as far as the nearest firebreak and stop due to the lack of fuel.
The U.S. Forest service began a program where they would respond quickly and extinguish the fire before a firebreak was created. They stopped a small fire but in doing so they allowed for the accumulation of fuel to become so great that with the slightest spark, an all consuming wildfire would break out. Their intervention ended up doing more harm than good, after they realized it, they began the implementation of CONTROLLED BURNS to create firebreaks. Back to natures original plan but modified slightly.
Now, I have often said that MASCULINITY is the fire that resides in a Man's soul. Properly harnessed, it can warm a home, provide safety, and prepare food. Improperly harnessed, it begins to destroy everything without prejudice.
A WILDFIRE
In the world today Men are being shamed for their masculinity. It's toxic, they say. now, if you got this email chances are that you're in full disagreement with that garbage. Yet, it keeps happening. Men are no longer allowed to exhibit their masculine traits without society trying to intervene.
Sound familiar?
The small forest fires were being extinguished so quickly that the fuel kept building up until and uncontrollable raze took place and wiped out everything. I think that is whats happening with Men today. That fire that needs to burn in order to create a firebreak is being doused so quickly that the the aggression inside is building and building to a point that there only need be a tiny spark to eradicate everything in the immediate surroundings.
We tend to forget that we are a part of nature too. We are designed by it to function within it's laws and codes of conduct. When nature gets tampered with, disasters occur.
By not allowing Men to be who they are, society is dousing the flames that are meant to be burned. Disrupting the natural order of things. Nature doesn't play by our rules. No matter how many fires we put out, the fuel keeps falling as the seasons and circumstances change. Lightening is still going to strike where it pleases and when it does, all of that fuel is gonna be there, waiting to go up in a flash.
Masculine Men are natural Men. We are going to continue to burn no matter how much it's suppressed. You can't fight nature in win. Nature doesn't give a shit about your feelings. Nature is gonna do what it does. The more Men choose to or are forced by society to suppress their natural masculinity the more that fuel is gonna continue to build and they will eventually be consumed by the wildfire.
Now of course, we as Men cannot let the fires get out of control. That would be reckless and stupid. But what the U.S. Forest Service did right was learn how to harness that naturally occurring fire. Controlled burns followed natures rules and thus created a balance.
That's what we as Men are obligated to do. To play by natures rules. To harness that aggression, that fire, and to put it to work. Make that fire work for us rather than burn unattended. To thrust ourselves into meaningful works that allow for the fire within us to burn as it should. Only then are we going to be as nature fully intended. Men.
Let the fires burn.
Regards, Jeff
Thank you all for taking the time to read this. Please pass this along with the links below to as many as you think will find the value in it. It is my personal mission to bring Men back into the fight for their own lives and masculinity.
Stay Rugged.