Saying Goodbye and Goodbye and ...

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I'm 6 days away from leaving Kansas City now and it's time to say goodbye, and goodbye, and goodbye to all of my friends.

It started with my good men-friends who I've made through the ManKind Project - www.mkp.org. If you've ever had doubts about if men are good or if they can love one another with their whole hearts, I suggest you join this group.

Being a man is a difficult thing and it is much different than being a woman. Men and women are separated biologically, but the mental gap might even be larger. While men and women can become extremely close, they still have difficulty relating to each other. These differences are a great thing and enrich our life. They help us see alternative ways of thinking about everything. Neither way is better or worse, but they are different. The feeling I get from communing with the men of MKP is quite different than anything I've experienced in mixed company.

I hope you don't think MKP isome kind of woman bashing club because the group is not about that at all. MKP is about being a full man - something not easy to do today or ever. With so many expectations, opinions and roles that we play in society, it is difficult to keep true to your heart and put all of the faces we put on. We have faces to represent the companies we work for. Faces to avoid unnecessary conflicts. Faces to sell things. I have avoided some of the more difficult faces that men choose - from being a soldier and being obligated to kill others to being a rescue worker and rushing into a fire to save a stranger. Another large face I've avoided is being a father. I have taken on the face of a husband and that is one of my most challenging ones.

I've heard that the ancient Greek would have thought it crazy to try and live with a woman on an intimate level for the rest of our lives. Women were for procreation and men were for doing things together. We'll probably never know what the Greeks or anyone else really thought or went through, but I can see how it was an easier time when men hung out more with other men. MKP gave me a chance to do that in a very loving and fulfilling way.

Last night, they sent me off on my new journey. I have to close this door of weekly meetings and regular felationships to live my new life on the road with my wife. We're going to be in very intimate quarters, even though we've tried to buy one of the biggest RVs we can find. The door to my office/second bedroom will probably be rather thin.

I also said goodbye to my Uncle Tom and Aunt Ellie last night. Tom lives near the meeting place for MKP, so I've stopped by to see him a few times. I was telling him where I was going and it turns out my long lost cousin and his son are on the path of my journey. Steve is in Carey, NC and his son is a baseball player at UNC Wilmington. His sone Dylan is a southpaw that can throw a 90+ mph fastball. It will be interesting to hopefully meet him and see if he's anything like my father who was a professional baseball player. Check out some of his stats here:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/k/kippfr01.shtml

There's been quite a bit of gearing up for the trip still. $600 for new tires for the truck. $600 for a 5th wheel hitch. $220 for a GPS unit. I'll tell you more about these items as I use them.


For now, it's back to my day job...

The RV Guy

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Comments

[MIchael Fuger]

Difficult?
Remember the I. Being is a man is not difficult. It is a no brainer. Evolving to who I am presents a fascinating challenge leading to fulfillment. I have absolutely no difficulty in relating with Dana. She is the perfect mirror through which I see the gold in myself. So Scott, I need to replace your pronouns with I and the writing makes far more sense. Peace, Michael