MEN’S WORK: A LIFE on PURPOSE
Pamplona, Spain
July, 2006
Moments before getting stepped on by a bull …
Yup. You read that right.
Stepped on by a bull trying to help get that bull off of someone else that was getting flung around like a rag doll.
He turned and charged me -- that split second that felt like an hour.
He lowered his head and charged. I literally "grabbed the bull by the horns" as he took me down.
His left front hoof landed on my right side, and my instincts had me rolling away instead of trying to get up and run without having to think about any of it.
Smart move on my instincts part.
He stomped for me again and again, but missed each time.
Then he charged after someone else.
I was 26.
Had cracked ribs for a month.
I am still grateful to have escaped so cleanly.
I regret none of it.
I hadn't seen this photo in years. Facebook just let me know I posted it originally 15 years ago.
Sometimes, when it's not spying on you, trying to sell you something, or trying to distract you from what's important, the algorithm hits a bullseye.
I'd been out of college for 4 years at that point in my life, living in New York City, bartending for a living and still trying to figure out what to do with my life.
Those 3 months of travel were a remarkable time. I didn't know what I was looking for but I knew I couldn't wait any longer for it to find me. I had to go looking for it.
I was looking for what I have come to find most men long for ...
meaningful adventure ...
a quest worth undertaking ...
a mission worth fighting for ...
At 26 it hadn't shown up yet, so with $7K in cash saved to my name, I made it happen and had $127 left when I arrived fresh from Europe to set foot on the Playa for my first year at Burning Man ...
I didn't know it at the time -- aside from the felt sense of yearning to be connected to something important; to DO something important with my life; to BE something or someone that mattered -- but it would take another 9 years before I would actually find what I was looking for on that trip to Europe.
In 2015, I found Men's Work. Or rather, Men's Work found me.
Finally, a felt sense of PURPOSE emerged in me.
Real purpose--beyond making money, paying bills, surviving,
And with that WHY, I had found the strength to endure every HOW that emerged to challenge me on my path between that day and today.
I don't know about you, but I recall feeling for most of my life that I was missing out on something crucial. Or worse, that I HAD missed out. That the ship had sailed.
I remember sitting in all those school desks, from elementary to college, waiting for the real teaching to begin, the real Teacher to emerge, the real training to get underway.
All those years waiting. All those years longing for the rites of passages and rituals and work that I've found in Men's Work, Burning Man, Community, and the work I do now in the world.
I wish I could go back in time and tell that young man at 26 what I know now: I wish I could tell him that it doesn't matter so much WHAT the purpose is, but to do whatever it takes to get quiet and still inside and listen to that pumping heart that always knows what to do and where to go and follow it no matter what it says.
Better than that, I would show him HOW.
My PURPOSE as it currently stands today? To be an accelerating instrument of the evolution of Men and Masculine Consciousness across this planet, in our lifetime, one man at a time.
The thing I didn't get, became the thing I was meant to give.
I am grateful now for all the challenges and "failed quests" that led me to stumble my way into teaching what I was never taught.
I am grateful for all the "bulls" in various physical forms that have stomped on me during the course of the "hidden" education I didn't realize was having it's way with me all along, inducting me into the lineage of what there are no longer living schools left standing to teach.
This post could end right here, but if you have EVER wanted to experience the technology of Men's Work for a chance to focus specifically on your Purpose and Mission in the world, now is your time.
The TECHNOLOGY of Men's Work awaits. It is my work, but it is not only my work.
It is the legacy of men everywhere.
It is right there, in the marrow of your bones, just waiting to be awakened.
We have lost so many of our rituals.
And it is important to remember that while Feminine initiation from girlhood to woman happens to her BIOLOGICALLY, through her own body …
… the MASCULINE initiation from boyhood to manhood is meant to happen CULTURALLY.
It must be INACTED by men FOR men.
Everything I was looking for all those years ago in Spain when I ran towards danger and was marked by the emissary of my astrological rising sign, is here in the Work.
If you work with me, you will encounter rituals and rites of meaning and manhood.
And while we will not be running with or from bulls on the weekend, we will be running into the adventure of a Life lived on PURPOSE.
If you or a man you know might be interested in this work, reach out. There is no commitment to buy anything. Just an opportunity to explore how this work might be right for you.
