100 year old man
Leaders Prep Section
Watch this video, read these notes, and send the pre-written email (below) to your group 2-3 days before you meet.
Notes
Maybe life requires less of men than it used to. Maybe manliness is under attack. Maybe guys just don’t value it. Whatever the reason, it sure doesn’t seem to be so prevalent anymore.
Group Guide Starts Here
Introduction
200 years ago, the average man knew how to saddle and ride a horse, build all sorts of things with his hands…probably even hunt and prepare food. To be successful today, a man doesn’t even have to know how to jump-start a car.
Is manliness a real thing and is there less of it today than there used to be?
Man’s DNA has not changed in the past 200 years; we just don’t evolve that fast. So technically speaking, men can’t actually be “less manly” than they were 200 years ago. However, it could be possible a man’s environment has changed so much that his manliness doesn’t appear as often as it once did.
Does the way we work today erode opportunities to be manly?
In 1993, the movie Demolition Man was released. John Spartan (played by Sylvester Stallone) is frozen in a CryoPrison and released in the year 2032 to combat the sinister Simon Phoenix (played by Wesley Snipes). The contemporary men in 2032 lived in a pacifist utopia, wore robes and sandals, and squealed like little girls at the first sign of conflict.
Will your grandsons experience less of a quality of life if he doesn’t get to experience the same level of “man-behavior” that your great-grandfather did?
In your experience, is manliness important to women?
Give yourself one point for each of these manly things you can do:
1. Walk into the woods with a single match and build a fire
2. Remove meat from an animal
3. Chop down a tree big enough to wreck a house
4. Fix your car, appliance, or anything mechanical that requires tools
5. Fight
What’s your score?
If you could learn one new manly thing, what would it be?