197 – The Minutia Of Manhood - a podcast by Alf Herigstad

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The Minutia Of Manhood…
Hey every body.  It is I, Alf Herigstad, back once again to talk with you about the minutia of manhood.  Welcome to being a better man, I’m glad you are here with me.Ah…the minutia of manhood.  It doesn’t sound very appealing when you say it like that.  We men usually avoid minutia, I know I do.  For those of you who don’t know, minutia is the tedious details of things.  The little things that are no fun but, that must be done.
For example, you may not realize that I am a home brewer.  I do make some craft beers, but mostly I make mead, which is essentially wine made from honey.  One of the oldest alcoholic beverages mankind ever made, and it’s what the Vikings drank.This is a hobby of mine that is a lot of fun.  I get a lot of enjoyment out of it and I have experimented with all kinds of different flavors and techniques.  I have made jalapeño mead, and coffee mead, strawberry and rhubarb mead.  I love the creation process, and I love having people try it and see the surprise on their face.  I love the science of it too, like how the yeast transforms honey and water into something amazing.  There is a part of this process I don’t like though, and that is the minutia.
The minutia of being a home brewer happens every time you want to put your new creation in bottles.  I hate washing bottles, that is the minutia, but guess what?  If I don’t wash the bottles then it will just sit there forever in these big glass fermenting vessels.  The only way to taste it or share it would be to get a big straw and sit on the floor sucking it out…and that wouldn’t be any fun I don’t think.So, I wash bottles.  I stand at the sink for a couple hours sterilizing and washing and I hate every second of it.  Those bottles are not going to wash themselves, so I have no choice.
Being a man is no different, being a man has minutia attached to it just like everything else does.  I love being a man.  I like being big and strong and being able to make things and grow a beard.  I like being regarded as a man in society and most other things that go along with being a man.  But then there is the minutia of being a man.I think the minutia of manhood is one of the things that separates boys from men.  It is the hard things, the little things that require effort.  Things like having responsibility, doing the right thing, admitting when you are wrong, taking care of your finances and your body and making sacrifices for the people around you. 
The boy will avoid most of these things and just keep onhaving fun pretending he is a man.  While the man will confront these issues and handle them, even when he doesn’t want to.  He will do that because he is a man, and he knows they will not handle themselves…just like my bottles won’t wash themselves.
Very often I have seen young guys in relationships who choose not to deal with the minutia of their life.  They just keep on doing whatever makes them happy in the moment instead.  Guess what always happens?  Someone else, usually the woman in the relationship is then forced to deal with the mans minutia that was left unattended.  I find it so sad whenever I see this happening.  You see women paying the bills and taking out the garbage and fixing things that are broken.  In extreme cases you see women going to work while the so-called man sits around and plays video games, and then expects her to make dinner when she comes home.Do you think this woman, or anyone else that knows a guy like this has any level of admiration or respect for him?  I highly doubt it.  How could a woman respect a man like that when she is acting like more of a man than he is?
Very much of what I talk about on this show is the minutia of manhood.  The stuff that you have to do consciously, the little details of your life that ultimately make you a better man.  The things that are not so fun, like acknowledging your faults…so...

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