In the United States, Sunday is Father's Day. Some refer to these “holidays” as made up holidays designed to sell more gifts and cards. However, similar to Mother's Day when we celebrate moms and women, Sunday is a day set aside to celebrate dads and men. I like to think of these days as appreciation and acknowledgment days.
Hey, wait a minute! Not everyone is a parent (mom or dad). What about them? Most likely we all HAVE currently or have had a mom and dad in the very beginning of becoming US so universal.
Hey! You just said a paragraph above that these are appreciation and acknowledgment days so what's up with the title? Dwindling value? Men? Are you writing about men as people or gender?
Before we come to a screeching halt and you don't keep reading, I fully acknowledge I don't know enough about all the gender stuff to write on that topic intelligently. If I do figure it out some day, I'll write another post.
Today, I am writing about MEN as men and fathers and being different than women which has seem to become an unpopular opinion.
There has been much posting, discussion and memes lately aimed at women with the question: Would you rather be trapped in the woods with a bear or a man? There have been some funny and interesting responses to this question in comments and discussions with varying degrees of humor. And pain. If you have been physically or mentally harmed by A man, you probably are not getting to the funny. It hurts. You have less chance, probably, of being harmed by a bear. That is part of the discussion.
I am not writing specifically of the damage that can be brought about by A man. I am writing about how we as a society are often treating and valuing MEN as a group. Maybe even valuing huMANs as a group, but that is another post.
Currently, media often displays men as bumbling fools, often in a bad mood, being taken care of by their partner, and/or worthless/”deadbeat” fathers. Gone are the days of fatherly wisdom it seems. Sometimes TV shows don't age well. Something that was considered humorous “back then” just isn't anymore. A show I was watching recently referred to men as being portrayed with “predatory, aggressive” behavior.
Are there “bad” men? Sure! There's “bad” women too. Media doesn't always focus on them as much. It doesn't mean they don't exist. I think the issue is where are we putting our focus? If we don't like the way we are heading as a society it is time to start having some of these tougher discussions. Did we need a women's movement? YES, but not at the expense of tearing down men. We can both bring value to life.We DO both bring value to life.
There comes a point where we begin to find what we look for. IF men are only portrayed as bumbling fools with a mean streak, WE are seriously doing MEN as a group a huge disservice. IF we expect men to be more like women, WE are going to be seriously disappointed.
Inside every man is a little boy that has been taking ALL of the above internally. This is in addition to: Don't cry. Don't be a mama's boy. Don't play with dolls or play house. Maybe they live in a house where this is being preached or beat into them and this becomes a generational issue and a perpetuating issue for men in that family because they are not being taught any differently.
Then that little boy grows up. He might dare to get married. We start asking: Why don't you show more emotion? Why dont't you spend more time with your mom? Why don't you take better care of the baby? Or me?
What are we doing as a society to help men and all of us be and do better? When we value one group of people less, we value all of us less.
We need to learn to VALUE each other for who we are individually and as a group. When we start to do that, ALL of our value goes up and we don't acknowledge this on just one day of the year for women or men.
Acts 17:22-31 (EasyToRead Version ETR) Then Paul stood up before the meeting of the Areopagus council and said, “Men of Athens, everything I see here tells me you are very religious.I was going through your city and I saw the things you worship. I found an altar that had these words written on it: ‘to an unknown god.’ You worship a god that you don’t know. This is the God I want to tell you about.
“He is the God who made the whole world and everything in it. He is the Lord of the land and the sky. He does not live in temples built by human hands. He is the one who gives people life, breath, and everything else they need. He does not need any help from them. He has everything he needs.God began by making one man, and from him he made all the different people who live everywhere in the world. He decided exactly when and where they would live.
“God wanted people to look for him, and perhaps in searching all around for him, they would find him. But he is not far from any of us. It is through him that we are able to live, to do what we do, and to be who we are. As your own poets have said, ‘We all come from him.’
“That’s right. We all come from God. So you must not think that he is like something people imagine or make. He is not made of gold, silver, or stone. In the past people did not understand God, and he overlooked this. But now he is telling everyone in the world to change and turn to him. He has decided on a day when he will judge all the people in the world in a way that is fair. To do this he will use a man he chose long ago. And he has proved to everyone that this is the man to do it. He proved it by raising him from death!”
