Taking Risks.

Men need to take risks. I think our culture is starting to raise ultra-safe (boring?) men due to one major thing: women are raising them. Divorce rates are high, and mothers are usually the ones to take care of the children. Take for example a conversation my wife was a part of with a group of mothers (you’ll want to hear this)…

A young boy (maybe around 8 or 10) was pretty attached to his iguana, until it died. He didn’t want his parents to know that it died, so he froze it (naturally) and would take it out to hold it once a day or so, putting it back in the freezer when he was finished. One day, he told a couple of his friends about his frozen iguana. Desiring to be men, they wanted to do something brave. They wanted to eat the iguana. Yep, eat it. So what happened? They ate it. Epic.

Somehow the story was figured out by a mother, who told then told the story to this group of women. You can guess the reactions, “I can’t believe that,” “where was their mother,” “I would never let that happen.” etcetera, etcetera… I say, let them eat the iguana (or at least laugh about it when they tell you the story). The only risk is that they would get a little sick for a couple days. Really, they could get more sick eating mom’s undercooked meatloaf.

I want to let my son take risks and let him experience life. I’m not going to let my child run around in busy streets, of course. I’m not talking life-threatening risks. I’m talking life-risks, manly risks. Yes, they’re sometimes stupid, but mom doesn’t understand that. Most men do stupid things, but it’s for the experience, for the camaraderie. We eventually grow up (kind of) and learn that those were life-changing events that helped us become the men we are today.

Share with us! What’s the riskiest (or stupidest) thing you did when you were a boy (or girl – maybe you’ll show us guys up!)?

Thanks to edans for the photo above