Men of Fire and Courage-StandUp!

I'm honored to have Will Rice guest blog this week. We go back a few years and he's honestly been one of my only "true friends." He's been there when I was at my worst and he also saw me through on the way up.  This piece was orginally supopsed to be included in the Men of Fire and Courage series, but we had a little miscommunication. I'll blame Will and he'll blame me. If you're unfamiliar with the blog series, I would ask that you go back and take a gander at the last few blogs in March. The foucs was Manleness, what has happened to it, how to cultivate it. I'm going to stick with this theme over the next month, so stay tuned!

When Jason asked to me to be a guest blogger I was really excited. New to blogging myself, I was really taken back by the fact that someone would ask me to guest write for their blog. Then he told me what the topic was and I was a little nervous about it and not exactly sure how to approach the topic of being a man. There are so many directions this topic can go. Being a man’s man, a man of god, not being manly enough (you get the point). Jason and I spoke about this topic on the phone for a few minutes we decided that I would take the approach of standing up for something. I glad he was there to focus me in on something otherwise everyone would be reading my endless sometimes incoherent dribble of me actually searching to answer my own question of what it means to be a man, and to be honest I don’t know that I can ever nail down a solid answer.

Let me preface my story with a little bit of my take on manhood though. I don’t think that being a man requires all of the societal stereotypes of a man. For me personally I was a kid who grew up around Music Theater. I took dancing, acting, and singing classes till I was 18 and I could have cared less about sports. Because of this I was ostracized for part of my life, I wasn’t doing the typical things a boy “should” do. However now looking back that doesn’t make me any less of a man. Neither does the fact that until 30 I couldn’t grow a beard (actually it is still kind of patchy, but it’s getting there). I also love cooking; some may not think this is the manliest activity; however thanks to people like Guy Fieti and Bobby Flay I think that society has changed that perception slightly. Being a man is so much more than the activities that you choose to participate in; it’s an attitude and an instinct. Its standing up for what you believe. It’s putting your family before anything else, that need to provide.      

Alright enough of trying to make a complete definition of a man, I could keep going as I said and still never get it fully.

Well anyone that knows me and my family knows it has been quite an adventurous year for us, moving, new jobs, new daycares, and a five year old starting school. It has been really crazy and chaotic. Well it all started with standing up for something and what was right. At my previous position myself and the small staff that I had worked diligently for roughly 8 to 9 to complete an overwhelming project that had been presented to and in some ways asked for by myself. When completed the project in a short amount of time with success and quite a substantial cost saving to the entity. Was it perfect, no, but it was a great product that met all the requirements, laws, and most expectation.

As good job as we did of course you can’t please everyone and there was a person In particular that disagreed with a particular result we had and how it affected them. Well as any good person who is proud of work done I offered the opportunity for the person to present their side and for some open dialogue, however since this person wielded some power and authority within the organization they decided to take a different route and use that power to get the desired results. My job and livelihood were threatened and I was bullied (took me back to the days of the school yard bullies that I was scared to stand up against). I stood behind the job we had done and decided to stand up for myself as well. I decided that I would not be bullied and I very quickly found a new position somewhere else where my talents would be appreciated, much to the surprise of the Bully.

Not that I always do, but sometime being a man means standing up. The man doing the bullying probably thinks he is more of the man. He has power and money ect, ect, but does that really make him a man or more of a man than me? I don’t think so. I think at that point in my life it was one my most manly moments. It was my David and Goliath moment. David wasn’t the biggest or the best warrior but he did get the victory. Some people may say that I didn’t win or wasn’t a man because I chose to leave the situation. But it was a victory for me because I was able to stand up and support a job that we had done and leave with my head held high knowing that I did the legal, right, and moral thing to do.



Twiiter-@willrice81

 Life as We Know It (Will's Blog)