Here and There with Twin Cities Men
Science News magazine's July 1st cover story and editorial "The Unseen Suffering of Boys: Mental health surveys may miss depression in young males" describes a U.S. survey that raised alarm over increased despair among girls but that screenings may miss struggling boys. "Teenagers in the United States are in crisis. The release of a nationally representative survey found that almost a third of teenage boys reported feelings of 'sadness' or 'hopelessness' -- common words used to screen for depression..."
– Sujata Gupta, www.sciencenews.org
Lessons from a Coming-of-Age festival The Tenetehar Wa Tembe village, is located in the Alto Rio Guama indigenous territory in Para state, Brazil. In this article describing their six-day, coming-of-age ritual, we learn the adolescents involved go through instruction, physical challenges, they are deprived of food, and they have their bodies painted and decorated.
Whatever you think about this communities' ideas and rituals, we should really be paying attention. We have important things to learn from them. The people of the Tenetehar Wa Tembe village are recreating the kinds of ritual events people down through the centuries, in cultures all over the world, have performed for the survival of their people. They are enfolding their adolescent youngsters into the life of the community.
Full posting at: http://journeytomanhood.blogspot.com/2023/07/lessons-from-coming-of-age-festival.html - The Man-Making Blog (about men, boys, male culture, mentoring, rites of passage, and men helping boys on their journey to manhood.
– Earl Hipp, 2023-07-17.
"Men are lost. Here's a map out of the wilderness." "I started noticing it a few years ago. Men, especially young men, were getting weird. It might have been the 'incels' who first caught my attention, spewing self-pitying venom online, sometimes venturing out to attack the women they believed had done them wrong.
It might have been the complaints from the women around me. "Men are in their flop era," one lamented, sick of trying to date in a pool that seemed shallower than it should be..."
Full opinion piece by Christine Emba, columnist, Washington Post, at:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/07/10/christine-emba-masculinity-new-model/
– Arlene Walker-Andrews, 2023-07-10.
Oh Grow up! is a new website: www.MentorsMatter.us that provides guidance for adults in leadership positions and their followers who lack maturity, wisdom, compassion, and spiritual connection. Many leaders and their followers remain in a childhood trauma system which they believe renders them powerless. Others who feel this way try to hide this by demanding power over others, becoming abusive and violent. This includes people who rise to power politically, personally, or organizationally.
– Michael Obsatz, 2023-05-15.
Minnesota Men's Conference In-Person Event: Gifts to the Resonating Night—Awakening the Male Emotional Body
Boys and men in modern culture are locked into suppressing their own emotional bodies, leaving them with little range or ambit of response. This living mummification of the emotional body reduces the eloquent voices of men to monosyllabic grunts. Unexpressed emotion then erupts into the only channel open to it: rage.
When the male emotional body is awake, men make heart-gifts to the world around us, and the world resonates with us.
As always, there will be powerful stories, deep poetry, soulful discussion, song, and feeding of the ancestral and ever-present sprits through ritual. Joining us again will be Miguel Rivera, Ben Dennis, Walton Stanley, Timothy Young, Jonathan Stensland, and others.
Dates: October 4-8, 2023 (Wednesday afternoon through Sunday early afternoon).
Cost: fee for the 5-day/4-night event is $750.00, covering meals, lodging, and the conference activities. Reduced fees and scholarships are available for those who request them. Inquire about financial aid at: Contact@minnesotamensconference.com
Location: YMCA Camp St. Croix, 532 County Road F, Hudson, Wisconsin 54016
To Register:
https://minnesotamensconference.com/events/gifts-to-the-resounding-darknessawakening-the-male-emotional-body – Minnesota Men's Conference, 2023-06-27.