A Man Must be a Man

"There is a land where a man, to live, must be a man. It is a land of granite & marble & porphyry & gold - and a man's strength must be as the strength of the primeval hills. It is a land of oaks & cedars & pines - and a man's mental grace must be as the grace of the untamed trees. It is a land of far-arched & unstained skies, where the wind sweeps free & untainted, and the atmosphere is the atmosphere of those places that remains as God made them - and a man's soul must be as the unstained skies, the unburdened wind & the untainted atmosphere. It is a land of wild mesas, of wild rolling pasture & broad, untilled valley meadows - and a man's freedom must be that freedom which is not bounded by the fences of a too weak & timid conventionalism.

In this land every man is - by divine right - his own king; he is his own jury, his own counsel, his own judge, and - if it must be - his own executioner... In this land a man, to live, must be a man."

Harold Bell Wright
Early Twentieth-Century Novelist
From the Book 'Tender Warrior' by Stuart Weber

What makes a man?

"First, foremost, & above all else, it is vision. A vision for something larger than life. A vision of something out there ahead....call it a sense of destiny."

"A man must visualize ahead of time. Project. Think forward. Life his eyes & chart the course ahead...anticipate what the months and years may bring. A provisionary is one who lives at & beyond the horizns. This is the very essense of his leadership. This is the 'king' in every man... always looking ahead, watching out for his people, providing direction & order."

"As men we so often misplace our vision. We focus myopically on houses & cars & stock portfolios & bank accounts & piling up stuffs. We imagine we find status & security in these things, when in fact there is no status or security if you don't have relationships.... We revert to the things we can see, when in fact it is the unseen world, the world of the spirit, the world of relationships, where we ought to be majoring in our provision. Matters of character, heart, spirit, integrity, justice, humility - the kind of things that last. The character traits that outlives a man and leave, not a monument, but a legacy."

Stuart K Weber
Tender Warrior