Art of Manliness: 30 Days to a Better Man

During the month of June 2009, The Art of Manliness ran a series of posts called “30 Days to a Better Man.” Each day we created a task for Art of Manliness readers to complete that would help them improve in different facets of their lives such as relationships, fitness and health, career, and personal finances.

We also had a very active Better Man Community Group where participants reported in how they did on the task and gave suggestions and encouragement to other members. Over all, I was very happy with the project and feel that lots of men got something out of it.

Below, we’ve created a summary of the entire month’s tasks, with links to each individual day. If you started the challenge late or you’re a new reader, this list will help you navigate through each day’s tasks.

Also, at the recommendation of several readers, I’m working on putting this series into a well polished PDF eBook. That way you can have the tasks all in one place that’s formatted for easy reading. You can even print it off so you can read it on the John.

continue at ArtofMan

The task list includes "Write Your Own Eulogy" "Write a Love Letter" and "Take the Marine Corps Fitness Test."  I'm going to do this. 

Fr. James Groppi and the civil rights movement

Ordained in 1959, Father James Groppi (1930-1985) was assigned to a predominantly black Milwaukee church in 1963. He participated in the 1963 March on Washington, and worked for desegregation and voting rights in Mississippi and Alabama with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. From 1967 to 1969, he brought this struggle home to Milwaukee with demonstrations for open housing and other efforts to combat de-facto segregation. For several nights in 1967 Fr. Groppi led marchers out of black neighborhods to rallies on Milwaukee's "all white" South Side. Arrested on many occasions for civil disobedience, he was instrumental in calling public attention to segregation in Milwaukee and in efforts to overturn it.

Father James Groppi and civil rights leaders during NAACP march, Milwaukee, 1968.

Father James Groppi with his fist in the air at the Wisconsin State Capitol. The Assembly Chambers were occupied for 17 hours to protest the budget cuts to welfare recipients. Father Groppi was later sued for up to $15,000 for the damage done to the Assembly Chambers during the protest. He was also put in jail for contempt of the Assembly charge, and faced a State disorderly conduct charge

Father Groppi is seated in the back of a police wagon with policeman after being arrested in front of his parish for the second night in a row.

Wisconsin Historical Society

Calls to mind the type of sacrifices it takes to repeal unjust laws and to change evil practices set in place by the culture.   Just because something is a cultural norm and legal, doesn't mean it aught to be.... and doesn't mean it can't be defeated on both fronts. 

Imagine if a priest was this passionate about his pro-life work.... 

Bp Christensen awards volunteer for work with the mentally handicapped

Bishop Peter F. Christensen makes a visit to Rhinelander and surprises a hard-working, local volunteer.

Christensen presented an award to Dennis Hermann, the president of Headwaters Incorporated in Rhinelander.

It's for distinguished service to the community after Hermann's many years of service at Headwaters. "Those that may have a little bit of a disability are challenged with life and how they're cared for with the community," Christensen says. "And a community that steps forward and cares for some of its weak members, weakest members, at times. It shows the heart of that community which is a wonderful thing."

Headwaters is a partner with the Catholic Charities Bureau.

The Bishop presented the award after the 26th annual Headwaters Charity Golf tournament in Rhinelander.

WJFW12

For you Catholic Men out there

I honestly didn’t really “find” my vocation, because I never actually went looking for it. Instead, it’s something I sort of stumbled into.

The idea for the Art of Manliness came to me in 2008 as I was browsing the men’s magazine section in a bookstore. It occurred to me that every month the men’s magazines put out the same old stuff: how to get six pack abs, how to bed as many women as possible, how to go on exotic trips most men will never be able to afford, and how to buy clothes that were well outside my budget. Most of the content just didn’t appeal to me. “Surely there is more to being a man than this,” I thought.

As I was driving home, my mind turned from the magazines to the men I knew who were my age, 20-somethings, recent college graduates. It seemed to me that a lot of them were a little lost in life. Many had grown up without the strong influence of a father–they came from divorced families, or if their dad was in the picture, he worked a lot and hadn’t spent too much time with his son. Even when guys had come from stable, loving, two parent families, they often felt a sense of restlessness or drift–they weren’t sure what to do with their lives, or even what they should want out of life. And they weren’t sure what it meant to be a good man.

I realized that I didn’t really know either. And that it was hard to blame us–the popular culture certainly didn’t offer any answers. The men on sitcoms and commercials were always presented as bumbling, dithering idiots that couldn’t do anything right; their more competent wives were left to roll their eyes and clean up their messes. And the men in movies were either meatheads who liked to blow stuff up, or immature man-children (I’m looking at you Judd Apatow).

Finally, I thought about my grandpa. The man was far from perfect, but he sure knew how to do a lot of things that I didn’t. It seemed like many of the skills and traditions that had been passed down from generation to generation had stopped being taught.

By the time I got home, an idea for a new blog was percolating in my head. I decided to start a totally new kind of men’s magazine. One with the kind of stuff I’d actually want to read. One that helped men understand what it meant to be a man and gain a sense of direction in their lives. A magazine that rediscovered the classic skills of yesteryear so that men could feel confident and competent in a variety of situations. Something that could be both serious and fun. A magazine that could inspire men to reach for excellence and attain their full potential.

I definitely wasn’t approaching it as an expert who wanted to share his vast wisdom with others. I didn’t consider myself especially manly, I didn’t have some long standing interest in manliness, and I hadn’t really studied the subject at all. I approached it from the perspective that like a lot of guys out there, I had a bunch of questions that I didn’t have the answers to, so I would dive into the best research I could find, and then share what I had discovered on the blog. Instead of telling other men what to do, they could use the information as a catalyst to think about their own lives and make the changes that were best for them.

With that in mind, I started the Art of Manliness in 2008. I figured it could be a fun hobby, something I could work on as a side project while I made a career as a lawyer. I thought maybe a few hundred guys would discover it and find it helpful.

Of course three and a half years later, the Art of Manliness has grown to a 100,000 subscriber blog and become my full-time job. I’m still not an expert in manliness–still just a guy looking for the answers. But along the way I found my vocation. Not by looking within, and deciding that a website for men was what I was born to do, but simply by noticing a problem, and working as hard as possible to fill that void.

read the whole article at The Art of Manliness