Time to Be a Boy - A Son's Rite of Passage

!: Time to Be a Boy - A Son's Rite of Passage

When we found out, in 2004, that we were having a son I secretly freaked. Not because I didn't want a boy, I just couldn't help but visualize him terrorizing girls, racing cars on the backstreets of Atlanta, or burning down his high school gym. I had virtually convinced myself, before he was much larger than a golfball, that I'd have to send him off to a far away boarding school or juvenile detention center. Fortunately my anxiety waned after Bubba was born and as we celebrate his seventh birthday this weekend I couldn't imagine my life now without him in it.

For a lot of dads the thought of raising boys seem almost unnatural. That unless sports is involved, dads are challenged to find ways of connecting with their son, and with so much of parenting being about nurture and affection many men simply aren't able to give what they never received. Because so many of our fathers missed the parenting gold star with us, we weren't handed the necessary road map giving us proper directions on taking our own sons into manhood. And that isn't necessarily our dad's fault as most of their fathers didn't perform the task any better.

Then adding insult to injury is the contradiction in society about what a man ought to look like. Should the Marlboro Man, that rugged loner who wrangles steers and sits by camp-fires, personify the ideal man? (That same guy so many women are asking "where has he gone to"?) Or should men be like Will Truman (Will and Grace), docile and passive, eager to watch sappy chick flicks and express every plausible emotion that comes into their heads?

Men's locker rooms, the golf course, and biker rallies force each man to ratchet up the inner machismo; where hot chicks, homophobic jokes, and fast cars tend to dominate the conversation. Today's dads know that in these settings being a Pee Wee Herman will ensure your feelings get hurt and may land you an atomic wedgie. But we also understand that once everyone gets off the Isle of Man, being Maximus (Gladiator) might get you condemned for being insensitive, too assertive, overtly macho, and too ambitious. Not surprising, it's this same man who gets the blame for most of the world's ills.

Being faced with this quandary I decided early on to approach fathering my son in stages. The first, his infant and childhood stage, has been to simply protect, nurture, show affection, and keep him from running into traffic. To pour on the kisses, hugs and snuggles even if, at his young age, it felt strange to show that kind of tenderness to a boy; but as he responded and reciprocated it has become as natural as for his sister. This includes telling him how much I love him even if he is less than eager to respond in kind.

So it's been my job for the last seven years to ensure that he knows his place as the apple of my eye and treat him as that child that he has been. However with his seventh birthday comes a turning point in his life, in my view he has shed the clothing of a child and is ready to begin donning the garments that will carry him into adulthood. This birthday weekend will serve as an initiation ritual ushering in the next stage of his life - that of boyhood.

Virtually unheard of in the western world, male initiation rites have been conducted for centuries across civilizations. The most well-known in today's culture, the Bar Mitzvah requires boys of 13 to read from the Torah. From this point, they are officially considered men and are personally responsible for adherence to Jewish law and their own actions. But it was the movie 300 that brought a historical context to the male rite of passage. At the age of seven, a Spartan boy would be yanked from his family to live with other boys in a school called the Agoge until reaching the age of 29. There he would learn all that was needed to be a productive Spartan man and especially a warrior. Records show that the training was brutal and often included murder as a proof of manhood. While our civilized society would view this as despicable, some of today's more primitive cultures continue to practice male initiation rites which aren't recommended for those with weak constitutions.

In the Sambia tribe of New Guinea, boys are removed from female company at around the age of 7 to live only with men in the form of clubhouse until they are married. They are forced to have regular nosebleeds and consume semen which is considered essential to encouraging masculine growth and development.

With the Mardudjara Aborigines in Australia, between 10 and 12 years of age, a boy will have a front tooth knocked out and his septum will be pierced. At this point, they are symbolically dead. After which they are taken into the wilderness by other men, then circumcised and expected to ingest the foreskin without chewing. Then, covered in blood, they are considered reborn as adult males.

Fortunately for Bubba and I his ritual will be conducted in more hospitable surroundings. It will be just him and I, a tent, sleeping bags, hotdogs, marshmallows with chocolate, graham crackers and a new boy's bicycle. Because if self mutilation and drinking bodily fluid is what it takes to be a man, he's on his own

Time to Be a Boy - A Son's Rite of Passage

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Reflections on a Difficult Gospel Passage - The Day and Hour Unknown

!: Reflections on a Difficult Gospel Passage - The Day and Hour Unknown

"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." Mark 13:32.

The difficulty of this passage for our church fathers and indeed, for many of us still today, lay in what seems to be a divine limitation of Jesus' knowledge. We get a feeling that something is amiss and then the question that almost immediately pops into the mind of readers is, If Jesus is God, how do we account for His lack of omniscience?

As we begin our journey for answers, we note that the short phrase "nor the Son" is found only in Mark; Matthew does not include it (Matt. 24:36). We also recall that Mark's general presentation of Jesus is as the servant and "a servant does not know his master's business." The servant character of Jesus seems to reveal His most typical and true humanness. He "took upon him the form of a servant." Is it possible that when Jesus became man, He limited Himself in order to be made like us? He was not omnipresent when He became man so is it also reasonable to assume that there was a self limitation relative to His all-knowing as well?

Stein believes the text is clear in revealing the fact that Jesus did not know when the Second Coming would take place. He recognized the theological problems associated with this text and confesses that it "may not be possible to know how Jesus could be 'very God of very God' and not know the exact time of his return."

Similar thoughts are shared by Barclay. He asserts that there are things which even Jesus left without questioning in the hand of God and that it would be blasphemous for us to inquire into that which our Lord consented to be ignorant of."

Beach entertains the thought that this saying was added by a Christian hand at some point during the transmission of this apocalypse. He claims that it was probably present in Mark's source. It contrasts with the rest of the apocalypse in which Jesus is presented as attempting to specify the time of His return as much as possible as is recorded in Mark 13:14: "When you see 'the abomination that causes desolation' standing where it does not belong--let the reader understand--then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.

Good Biblical hermeneutics is difficult, time consuming and mentally fatiguing. It is never an overnight process. Rather, it is a frustrating struggle, which by the way, should be accepted as our own personal sacrifice for God and one that is not taken lightly.

SIDEBAR QUOTE:

Sink the Bible to the bottom of the ocean, and still man's obligations to God would be unchanged. He would have the same path to tread, only his lamp and his guide would be gone; the same voyage to make, but his chart and compass would be overboard. H. W. Beecher

May God bless us all as we strive toward greater hermeneutical competence.

Reflections on a Difficult Gospel Passage - The Day and Hour Unknown

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PASSAGE 1: Three men sailing beyond the Pacific ocean.

!: PASSAGE 1: Three men sailing beyond the Pacific ocean.

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The Inside Passage

!: The Inside Passage

Undulating landscape

My recent trip to Southeast Alaska had me reflecting very strongly. We sailed up what is known as the Inside Passage which was wonderful. Such stunning natural beauty. The landscape filled with rocky outlines of the granite mountains rising from the sea, snow capped peaks, lush green forests, icy blue waters the incredible shades of white and various blue hues of the glaciers. Truly captivating scenery, nature at its best showing us her outer and inner self.

Our bodies

I could not help but liken the undulating landscape to the terrain of our own bodies. The peaks and crevices that shape who we are, the crests and vales that rise and dip all over us. How we have openings and passages that contain, hold, emit, taste, hear and see.

I likened that to our own Inside Passage(s) that have a world of their own working away ceaselessly in order to keep our body in perfect harmony. The automation continuing unabatedly just like what I witnessed in Alaska.

The mixture of the male and female, the folds and the flow of the 'sea' of the body (the skin) with smooth and rough exteriors. Watching a glacier calving was just like the falling away of the placenta during the birthing process. The sweet scent of the air in which natures magic dances just as our scents when activated pervade the atmosphere when up close and personal.

The Self

Then there is the Inside Passage of Self, of Mind. The place where we hold our feelings, sway with our emotions, weave our reality. The place where we fantasize, where we explore the sensations of our body.

The seasons depicted by our sunny disposition, the stormy emotional response, the light hearted playfulness where there is a spring in the step or the falling away and surrender of wanting to retain too firm a grip on an utterance or a feeling.

Feeling good, feeling joy, feeling playful, feeling happy, a recipe for general wellbeing. Intimacy and sexual satisfaction an extremely pleasurable part of life.

The passage of Life has much to offer if we simply choose to be open enough to let it all in.

©copyright 2007 - Marie-Elise Allen

The Inside Passage

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Cruise - Alaska and the Inside Passage

So what is it that makes Alaska an experience so spectacular? The glaciers, the colossal body of ice are amazing, and there are huge chunks of ice break off and plunge below freezing in the deep ocean. Under the bird's-eye view is strongly recommended as a splendid view of the endless streams of ice below the soil level can not get to be seen. Of course, to get on the glacier near the cruise ship to see and this is an unforgettableExperience.

Subsequently, the imposing mountain ranges, which are as high as 20,000 feet and are just a few miles from the coast can be, and have a really breathtaking. The mountains of Alaska seem mystical and other land rising impressive heights. They provide a marvelous setting for the already beautiful bays, rivers, islands and fjords. Another big crowd-puller is the abundant wildlife in Alaska is unique in this region: blacks bears, grizzly bears,Kodiak, and even polar bears remarkable. But the odds of running into a polar bear are very slim, if you are traveling on the side of the Arctic Circle, but there is a high probability that they meet in bald eagles and Grizzlies. The majestic bald eagle, in fact, among the many incredible things about Alaska. See how awestruck dive and dive for fish in the depths of the bays and crystal clear rivers of Alaska.

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Aquatic life is in the same abundance. SpottingWhales from the decks of ships and the coast is not uncommon. The whale watching is an incredible opportunity, the huge mammals to travel near and what's available in all major ports to see. Orcas, or killer whales and dolphins and the varieties of Pacific salmon (sockeye, pink, chum, king and shock) are found in abundance in Alaska

Cruise - Alaska and the Inside Passage

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A cruise in summer or autumn the best time is expected to see salmon. The rivers and streams filled with salmon as they returnhome waters to lay their eggs so that the package of waterproof them.

But definitely the highlight of the cruise Alaska only the broad spectrum of coastal trip is offered. You can benefit from these activities at any time before or after the trip and during breaks. There is so much to do, from rafting on rivers fed by glaciers, or even dog sled down the ice away. For something cheerful, there are excursions to the Bald Eagle Reserve, trainExcursions to the Yukon Gold Rush country. There are endless possibilities range from those that are easy on your pocket over-price. So, what is yet more reason to take a cruise in Alaska? chosen independently of the cruise will be the experience of a lifetime.

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Passages: Predictable Crises of Adult Life

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