I’ve been facilitating a men’s group this summer called ManCLAN. It’s part 
adventure and experience and part dialogue and inspiration. Jack London’s “The Call of the Wild” has been one of the texts recommended for reading. This section had some poignant reflections on the types of men, the dogs in London’s story represent.
adventure and experience and part dialogue and inspiration. Jack London’s “The Call of the Wild” has been one of the texts recommended for reading. This section had some poignant reflections on the types of men, the dogs in London’s story represent.“And over this great demesne Buck ruled. Here he was born, and here he had lived the four years of his life. It was true, there were other dogs. There could not but be other dogs on so vast a place, but they did not count. They came and went, resided in the populous kennels, or lived obscurely in the recesses of the house after the fashion of Toots, the Japanese pug, or Ysabel, the Mexican hairless, strange creatures that rarely put nose out of doors or set foot to ground. On the other hand, there were the fox terriers, a score of them at least, who yelped fearful promises at Toots and Ysabel looking out of the windows at them and protected by a legion of housemaids armed with brooms and mops.” – “The Call of the Wild” by Jack London
This piece of descriptive narrative made me think of many men today who “live obscurely in the recesses of the house” and “rarely put nose out of doors or set foot to ground.” This could apply to so many issues and practices plaguing the modern man from work, entertainment, the amount of ease, web-life and fighting from behind screens. It also touches on the imprisonment of the modern male, the isolation, the false reality being created that replaces personal experience with looking at other people’s experiences. Everything has an alternative that removes the pain and pleasure of face to face confrontation or engagement.
The pitiful plight of men who “yelp fearful promises’ while looking out windows into the world is tragic. God save us men from the ‘legions of housemaids armed with brooms and mops.” That isn’t a condemnation on women, it’s a existential judgment about the creeping cowardice taking up residence in the heart of men.
These are perilous times but the danger to the soul of men isn’t coming from without but from our own hearts.
One of my passions is rooted in awakening the primal wildness of God’s power that is a gift available through his spirit. The Holy Spirit is described with images of thunderous storm, tempestuous flame and driving wind. This power is eternal and can revive the dead, animate the living, give a new language to the soul of men and thrusts one out into the adventure of God’s mission. It’s a call that is wild and for those who have ears to hear, it can bring meaning into the mundane.
“I would rather be ashes than dust!
I would rather that my spark should burn out
in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot.
I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom
of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.
The function of man is to live, not to exist.
I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them.
I shall use my time.”
I would rather that my spark should burn out
in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot.
I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom
of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.
The function of man is to live, not to exist.
I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them.
I shall use my time.”
-Jack London
