So I’m watching the news while I ate my lunch and this woman comes on who has written a book called “Other-Hood: Modern Women Finding a New Kind of Happiness” by Melanie Notkin.  The basic jest of her book is based around the fact that many women today are deciding that marriage and family is not for them and that they can lead ‘happy and fulfilling lives’ without all that…’Other-hood’ instead of Motherhood.

I was floored. 

Aside from odd premise that so many women believe that happiness is to be found in NOT fulfilling the ‘measure of their creation’…there was something even more fascinating about the argument that Melanie presented (something that actually seemed to contradict the initial premise of ‘women being happy all alone’). After some discussion with the news caster it was pointed out that the majority of women would like to find a good man, marry and have a family…BUT…they are very underwhelmed with the choice of men they encounter and ultimately don’t really want to marry them.  Basically she said that the MEN of today are wussies. As she spoke I surprisingly found myself starting to agree with her.

Techno-Babies

After my post yesterday, I had someone say to me “but we have to teach our kids about technology, they have to learn this stuff to be successful in the world today.”

I thought about this idea and I’ve come to the conclusion that they are 100% wrong.  Here is why:

Putting On Chains

First off, I have to apologize for neglecting this site.  Life sometimes requires more attention and writing has to take a backseat.  I'm hoping to post at least once a month though.

So here is my thought for this week.

I went to visit my doc the other day for my BSA physical that is required so that I can go on back-country camps with our scout troops.  (according to my doc I’m the healthiest 45-year-old he’s seen in a long time…BOOM!)

That isn’t the story I wanted to tell though…it’s another thing that came out of my doc visit.

High Five

This story comes to me from a close friend who for the sake of telling the story I’ll call ‘Jack’, and I share this story with his permission. I share it because I think every man needs to hear it.  Especially the guy who ‘high-fived’ Jack…don’t worry…that will make sense in the end.

You see, Jack  (like all of us) has some struggles in life. Most of the time, he’s feeling good and doing great.  Sometimes he gets down on himself and feels the power of the adversary tugging away at his mind and soul.  Sound familiar?  Yeah, I thought so.  Like I said, we all have struggles.

Is a Man-Cave Really All that Manly? (for fun)

I love my garage.  In fact that was a major deciding factor in buying my house.  It is a genuine two-car garage, which means that you can comfortably park two cars in it and there is still room for bikes, mowers, snow blowers, tool benches, refrigerator, weight bench, TV…etc. and you can still walk around the cars. It’s a great garage. It’s a great place to be doing manly things.

I exercise out there in the mornings.  My Saturday’s are spent out there.  I am out there frequently during the week.  It’s a manly place to be…as garages have been for years.  What is more manly than a great garage?

Iron Man's garage is the greatest garage ever. (the Batcave is a close second since it is more of a cave than a garage...)

Life is Tough...And That is AWESOME!

The following is in response to a conversation I had with my son about how life is hard, and sometimes it seems like when you are working really hard at accomplishing something and it doesn’t go your way, you feel like giving up.

Enjoy.

Dear Son,

I can understand and feel your pain.  I’ve been there many, many, many times myself.  You struggle and work to achieve something of worth and value and for some reason, you fail.  It’s even worse when it seems that everything in your life is failing at the same time and it becomes very easy to say “why try anymore?”.  You want to throw in the towel and give up.

Believe me when I say that I’ve experienced this a lot throughout my life.

But let me tell you this…and if you don’t remember anything else I’ve told you…remember this quote: “The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”

It’s important to remember that because life is tough, life is going to knock you down, life is going to hurt, I can guarantee that life will hurt you a LOT…and that is awesome!

Stretching Before Exercise is A Waste of Time

http://saveyourself.ca/articles/stretching.php

I read this interesting article on stretching before exercise and if you want to read the whole thing go to the above link…It's pretty long so for those who don't want to read here are some of the highlights that I thought that can be helpful.

His whole article can be summed up with the following sentence: “Stretching as we know it — the kind of typical stretching that the average person does at the gym, or even the kind of stretching that most athletes do — is mostly a waste of time.”

The article examines stretching from the stand point of “Why do people stretch?” and does stretching actually achieve those goals?  So why do people stretch? The top 5 reasons are:

1)    Warming Up
2)    Prevention of injury
3)    Prevention of Muscle Soreness
4)    Flexibility
5)    Performance Enhancement