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Old 03-25-2008, 11:09 AM
Kingston Kingston is offline
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Integrity is the thing indeed.

In addition:

Being a man is about getting things done. Your confidence derives from your ability to pay the bills and support yourself and others, to be of value in an economic, social and emotional sense. In most cultures you are a worthy man when you production exceeds your consumption, meaning that you support others, and no one needs to support you.

You develop this masculinity by living in a no-nonsense way. Take on the problems / challenges before you, and make it happen. Sometimes you fail, but that is OK.

This poem by Rudyard Kipling says it all. I am not a man yet according to this definition, but most are not. We have to aspire, though.

[IF]

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!


--Rudyard Kipling
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Last edited by Kingston : 03-25-2008 at 11:14 AM.
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