"In my country we have a name for a warrior with the vision to be just and the courage to show mercy. We call him -- The Cid"
-- Moutamin
There is a particularly dramatic scene in an inspiringly dramatic movie, about a truly inspiring and dramatic historical character whose name was Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar. He was called "El Cid", named such by his Arabic friends and enemies. It means "The Lord." In this scene, a Spanish nobleman played by Charlton Heston holds the King of Spain to task for the murder of his Royal brothers, which allowed him to gain ascension to the throne. In front of the people of the Kingdom, Cid forces the King to place his hand on the Bible and swear to God that he was not involved in the murder of his own brothers. In a startlingly masculine and powerful act, El Cid risks his own subservient status as a King's noble in order to be certain of the integrity of his own sword and his allegiance to the King. He humbles a King. He does so in public. Of course, the King feels humiliated and immediately plots revenge.
The King is "humbled" but at the same time the King feels "humiliated." How do we reconcile the two concepts? Well, Gentlemen, as we continue our stroll down Manhood Lane your favorite Old Doc is going to argue for another vital trait essential for building your true Manhood. And that trait, really, that goal, is Humility. St Paul advocates:
And fbe not conformed gto this world: but hbe ye transformed by ithe renewing jof your mind, that ye may kprove what is that good, and cacceptable, and perfect, lwill of God. 3 For I say, mthrough the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, nnot to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think †soberly, oaccording as God hath dealt to every man pthe measure of faith. 4 qFor as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: 5 So we, rbeing many, sare one body in Christ, and every one tmembers one of another. 6 uHaving then gifts differing oaccording to mthe grace that is given to us, whether wxprophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; 7 Or yministry, let us wait on our ministering: or zhe that teacheth, on wateaching; 8 Or bhe that exhorteth, on cexhortation: dhe that ||giveth, let him do it ||with simplicity; ehe that ruleth, with fdiligence; he that sheweth mercy, gwith cheerfulness.
--Romans 12:2
For a Man attempting to fulfill true Manhood today, the obstacles are daunting. The Left's demands have become more than shrill. They are now irreconcilable with not only Manhood, but Family, Womanhood, Religion, Property and Freedom. Disagree with Homosexual Marriage, the Kyoto Treaty, or the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and you Boyz are pummeled, often legally, with the now familiar mantra of racist-sexist-homophobic-right wing-gun toting-Christian-polar bear haters. Hey Fellas, forget looking for cover from politicians, judges, or the media. Of all the enemies of humanity, the American Male is ENEMY NUMBER ONE, and those cowards will always betray you for cheap praise.
Yup, you Boyz are Godzilla, chupacabra, the bogey-man, and cigar-smoking Rush Limbaugh all in one. Yikes! By the time you recover from the public stoning you Buds are gonna wanna run right to the kitchen, put on your aprons, and start dicing bell peppers! Nah, c'mon sack it up....you Boyz have got to start looking elsewhere for help; learn to rely on His Word. The Good Book. It's all in there. Wisdom of the Ages. Purity. Fealty. Devotion. Love. Humility. Powerful. Lasting. Satisfying. Effective. Why would you think our Founding Fathers made the FIRST Amendment to the U.S. Constitution about freedom to worship?
What does Humility have to do with Manhood you ask? And why keep bringing religion into the mix? Well for one, the Son of God was the epitome of Manhood. Yeah, a real hombre. He demonstrated enormous power by bringing Lazarus back from the dead, and brought sight to the blind. And yet for the sake of the world's sinners He turned right around and humbled himself by allowing Jewish and Roman humiliation on His body throughout his Passion. He allowed Himself to be nailed to a tree......one, an act of the ultimate power of His choosing; the other the obscene human debasement and degradation by his misguided inferiors.....The Old Testament is nothing if not a testament to Man's need to be humble --yeah, or else. The New Testament is witness to the individual humility of The Christ, often at the feet of his human tormentors. It turns out that Humility is yet another one of those pesky requirements Providence has laid out especially for the fulfillment of true Manhood.
Now getting back to illustrative theatre, Rodrigo did indeed become the victim of the King's vindictive petulance. Exiled, stripped of all his lands, wealth and status. ANY person caught aiding him anywhere in the Kingdom would be executed. The now exiled ex-nobleman is shown riding into a deserted shrine with the three crosses in the background.
What ensues is, in the Old Doc's opinion, even more dramatic and more inspiring than his public humbling of the King of Spain. A leper, Lazarus, reveals himself, crying out "I thirst, Lord Knight, I thirst." The Cid stops and without hesitation gives him drink from his own pouch; and then actually gives him the water pouch to keep. Lazarus gratefully thanks "my Cid." Expressing surprise at how this destitute leper knew him, Lazarus exclaims, "there is only one man in Spain that could humble a king and give a leper to drink from his own pouch"........ Wow.
Gentlemen, can you truthfully say that you do NOT want to be this Man someday? Take the few minutes to watch this moving depiction in its entirety. You may never see a more poignant tutorial on a the glory of a Man's Humility. You may never otherwise connect the magnificence of Christ the King's powerfully masculine sacrifice with Manly humility. As you view this scene, consider the enormity of willingly accepting human frailty and torture for Divine purpose.
(Or, Go to: youtube.com, "El Cid - Lazarus the Leper")
This Old Doc would contend that most men actually require a modicum of humiliation in order to finally achieve more or less humility. I say "more or less" because very few men ever have achieved complete humility, that is, complete, down-on-the-knees devotion to the will of God and the Ten Commandments; purity in "loving your neighbor as you would love yourself." Yeah Bud, that stuff again.
Most of us Men require repeated episodes of humiliation in order to approximate true humility. Some more, some less. Other people may try to humiliate you, but only you can actually feel humiliated. Therefore humiliation is a self-centered, even selfish, state. It revolves around you, my friends -- how YOU "take" it, how you feel about it, how you react to it. The "it" here can be anything from silence, a raised eyebrow, tender words, harsh words, prison, lashings, keel-hauling, crucifixion, bile in your wine.....or even, The Truth.
If you are a Coptic Christian, for example, you may regard your own beheading by ISIS, NOT as a humiliation, but as a truly humble act of faith and devotion to God Almighty. ISIS intends humiliation, but the faithful Christian may regard this sacrifice as humbling in the eyes of God. On the other hand if you get really angry, take your ball and stomp home, causing your own mother's grief in order to gratify your overinflated sense of importance, well.....you may well feel enormous humiliation once you admit to your innermost self that you have been a self-centered, selfish coward, and a horse's ass. Or not. This childish behavior will certainly never grow humility. But you still have your own head on your shoulders!........ See the difference? The Coptic Christian is suffering objectively far worse in the horror of what is to come, and in the moment of the act itself. Yet degree of physical suffering is not the distinction between humility and humiliation. One is in the service of God. The other involves only the obsession of self. Suffering because you obey God's Commandments is humble; suffering because you act as if YOU are God......humiliation.
The king asked his American painter, Benjamin West, what Washington would do after winning independence. West replied, “They say he will return to his farm.”
“If he does that,” the incredulous monarch said, “he will be the greatest man in the world."Humble. Humble act. Subsuming his personal influence and power for the good of his new, beloved nation. The General had indeed performed a humble act, of course, thereby adding to his personal stores of humility. As the recipients of this historical largesse, we today gratefully confer the assessment of humility onto this great man. The General himself would probably regard this act as his duty. Remember, whereas humiliation by definition is something negative YOU feel or perceive, humility is something earned by a selfless act and is often conferred onto you by others. The Final Judgement on this is up to God on that very definitive Day.
Feeling humiliated is a very common, very human preoccupation. Humility is also to be found among we humans, but it is a much rarer commodity. And, be very careful, because you yourself might think that you are acting humbly, and well Pards, that can be a very slippery slope. Your self-assessment may or may not be accurate. A Man's instinct to self-aggrandize, so the latter is the most probable. Let others make this important assessment of your character. More accurate, and ultimately a lot more gratifying. Trust me on this.
Now, The Cid both humbled AND humiliated the King of Spain when he publicly forced his hand onto the Bible to swear. Confused? How could both disparate assessments be true at the same time? Well, the King, because he was in fact a weasel, was humiliated by this public act. As King, he felt it was beneath him, insulting to his authority to have an underling require this swearing. Again, he felt humiliated. But what if, on the other hand, the King was truly humble, why ever would he be perturbed at having to publicly swear to the Almighty God? Simply because he did not actually believe he was subservient to anyone, including God. The Cid, and Lazarus for that matter, did accept their subservience to God, and that is why from their perspective the forceful act was a humbling one. With sincere humility, The Cid had to be sure he was dedicating his sword, and consequently his very life, to a King wise enough to demonstrate to his subjects his humility to The Almighty. The noble Cid's intent was not to inflict humiliation. It was the King's own arrogance, his own self-centered selfishness that created the feeling of humiliation in his own mind. A quite instructive vignette on the stark contrast between humility and humiliation.
So what is the Old Doc clumsily trying to get at? Just this: Some Men think primarily of themselves and their own needs, feelings and butt hurts. They are selfish and self-centered. This is the group that tends to experience a far greater share of the world's humiliations because their very arrogance casts a wide net for perceived slights and emotional bruises. They are arrogant because they tend to put their own gratification before their subservience to God.
Other Men often consider, and serve, the needs of others. They tend to be more eager to please The Almighty, and His will. Interestingly enough, these self-interested Men are generally more selfless. In contradistinction to selfishness, self-interest causes a Man to concern himself with the more elevated virtues of honor, integrity and courage -- yes, in order to better serve God, his Master. The by-product of surrendering one's will and life over to the care of God is, of course, the virtuous humility that is so difficult to define, and for many even more tedious to achieve.
It is here that I might begin to close with the literary technique of acknowledging that some of you Men continue to feel "uncomfortable" with the Old Doc constantly harping on religious themes. Sorry Pal, I simply will not pretend to "sympathize" with you. You have just got to grow up someday. You have simply got to open your eyes so that you might see; and your ears that you might hear. Your Feminist teachers have lied to you. Your Leftist media bimbos and himbos have lied to you. Marx, himself a leech and child abandoner, lied to you. Celebrity homosexual heroes have lied to you. Race pimps have lied to you. Che lied to you. Cowardly Politicians daily lie to you. Grifters like the Clintons have lived one giant scam and lie.
Your queasiness with The Almighty God and his Commandments were unknown to such Masculine icons such as General Andrew Jackson, General Sam Houston, General U.S. Grant, General George Patton, Sergeant Alvin York, Chief Petty Officer Chris Kyle, and every Pilgrim on the Mayflower.
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| Hero of San Jacinto |
No Fellas, the concerted efforts of the Left, beginning with the early European Socialists that rallied around the ultimate Wayne's World hero, Karl Marx (fact: Marx never held a job, fleeced his parents dry, philandered on his wife, and abandoned his own children); the Godless Socialists, the Communists, the Progressives, the Liberals have systematically propagandized our Christian Western culture to doubt the very foundational morality of fidelity to our Heavenly Father and the sacrifice of his only Begotten Son. You bet. Doubt God, break up the family, villainize private property, and denigrate the American Man. For a hundred years now this committed Left has encouraged and skillfully manipulated the wackos, yeah, they let the dogs out. Feminists, Race pimps, Hippies, Enviro Nutjobs, and now the Homosexual Fascist create ongoing and sufficient societal confusion to make a Man's head spin. And become easily deceived in the process. Right-- Iran is our friend, go ahead give them a nuke. And Israel needs to be jilted. Whatever........ American Men huddled in fear, teeth chattering behind Bruce Jenner's skirts......YIKES!
So, how is that "doubting God" piece working out for you Boyz these days? Your kids being taught how to cross-dress in grade schools. California drying like a prune to save the doomed Delta Smelt. Males marrying males, and females marrying females. Males divorcing males, and females divorcing females. Black males torching cities without repercussion. Politicians overtly pocketing our tax dollars AND EVEN LINING THE POCKETS OF FOREIGN CROOKS WITH THOSE SAME TAX DOLLARS! And to top it all off, it is YOU, the American Man, who is being blamed for all of this detritus. Let me stop. The Old Doc is feeling nauseated.
Humble yourselves Mates. Read the Good Book. Make the Ten Commandments your life commands. Imagine for a brief moment all of the ramifications of folks thinking of you as the Man who "would humble a king" and yet provide drink for a thirsty leper. Imagine you standing tall, and standing up for the weak, like say, our schoolchildren; the helpless, like say, the unborn babies; and the disadvantaged, like say, the American taxpayer who works hard and plays by the rules. What a concept! You Men, what about standing up for the U.S. Constitution and the U.S. Bill of Rights; you know, for the sake of the Faithful (First Amendment), and the Armed Citizen (Second Amendment). You know Pards, for the greatest country the world has ever produced; the greatest friend the common man has ever had; and the only real, last, and final hope for all of Mankind. Yeah Boyz, America, Land that Used To Be Free, and Home of the Formerly Brave.
In the paradox of all paradoxes, your gonads with grow proportionately in direct proportion to the amount of true Humility you attempt to cultivate on that dry, parched, alkaline soil known as your miserable character. Standing tall, Fellas, requires getting on your knees. Mutter a little prayer to God, Pal, beg forgiveness for your dopey ignorance and ask for the wisdom and strength to serve the true Master of All Things. In this way you may just someday catch a fleeting glimpse of true Manhood. You Millennials may be lost causes.....I don't know......God is All Powerful, however, His Wonders to perform......you never know..............Doc
