Popular Mechanics put 25 skills on their cover, which they believe every man should know. Here is the list . . . .
1. Patch a radiator hose
2. Protect your computer
3. Rescue a boater who has capsized
4. Frame a wall
5. Retouch digital photos
6. Back up a trailer
7. Build a campfire
8. Fix a dead outlet
9. Navigate with a map and compass
10. Use a torque wrench
11. Sharpen a knife
12. Perform CPR
13. Fillet a fish
14. Maneuver a car out of a skid
15. Get a car unstuck
16. Back up data
17. Paint a room
18. Mix concrete
19. Clean a bolt-action rifle
20. Change oil and filter
21. Hook up an HDTV
22. Bleed brakes
23. Paddle a canoe
24. Fix a bike flat
25. Extend your wireless network
While I can do all but #4 and #8 (although I could probably figure them out), I honestly believe this list is not entirely accurate – here are my additions:
- Drive a stick shift
- Kill and Clean a buck or other game animal
- Change a flat tire (side note: nothing irks me more than seeing a “man” standing around watching his girlfriend or wife change a flat tire, because he cannot do it.)
- Cook
- Use Jumper cables
- Know when to be the John Wayne “I’ll kick your ***” type of person, and when to be the compassionate type. (i.e. real men know when it is right to stand up and fight, and how to be compassionate to the sick or depressed).
- Serve your country (it does not have to be in the military, there are other ways to serve)
- Defend his house from intruders
- Clean his firearms after defending his home
- Take & give orders
- Lead and be led when called upon to do either
- Figure out how to install basic appliances – with or without the directions
Some of the things in the Popular Mechanics list are a bit on the geek side of things, but with the increase of technology in daily life it is important that a man can figure these things out. Nevertheless, it is disappointing that so many men have become so emasculated that their wives can do both lists, while they have to stand by and watch. So many men have become feminized to the point that their wives are more manly than they are, and their wife is not even trying!
Gone are the men like Theodore Roosevelt who said:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
Theodore Roosevelt was a real man. He knew how to stare down his opponent, and knock him down if needed, he was always faithful to his family and country, his endurance was almost superhuman, and his character was of utmost importance to him. We need more men like him, men who have bold ambition without walking over everyone in their way, who stand back up no matter how many times they are knocked down, and put his priorities in their place.
Some final clarification from another man:
IF
– by Rudyard Kipling
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with wornout tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”;
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man my son!
By the way: I am mostly addressing external characteristics here. I realize, for any who may be concerned that I am not addressing the fact that a man should be able to help around the house, take care of himself, etc. I have also not addressed the heart issues of what a man should be to his wife, as commanded in the scriptures – those are of course of utmost importance, but they are just not the subject of this post.
