Manhood defined - at last!

(Looking back on this article, I remember the tough times. I told myself over and over not to doubt myself.)

Manhood must appear on the outside,

If it is not found on the inside.

Suffering makes the man.

A lack of suffering keeps him a child.

To go against the customs and demands of the age

Requires courage and steadfastness.

To take up the customs and demands of the age

With more than usual zealotry

Requires more than usual cowardice.

To swim upstream

Requires more than usual effort.

To swim downstream

Requires less than usual effort.

Those who frustrate the efforts of others

Panic when they fail to do so.

**

Nothing can mask cowardice for so long

Not any claim to manhood

Not a long turban

Not a clever tongue

Not a sharp tongue

Not a dense moustache

Not a long beard

Not a deep stare

Not long-winded poetry

Not an aura of terror and doom

Not an aura of grandeur and importance

Every coward must stare submissively

into the eyes of the fearless and hardened.

**

Courage is the first virtue

Loyalty is the second

With cowardice

There can be no true loyalty

With cowardice

There can only be conditional loyalty

That will falter in the hour of peril

Steadfastness is the third virtue

Without courage

There can be no steadfastness

Only submissiveness.