If you want to teach a boy how to be a man,
you must first teach him how to be a boy.
There is no man without boy,
there is no life, no method of employment,
no purpose or enjoyment,
if this is not the first thing they learn.
For when a child skips his youth
he learns too late that he is missing a part of his soul, the piece that allows him to relate to children
even after he is grown.
Instead he expects harsh realities from babes and
These men nowadays have never been boys,
have had their youth stolen simply because they were born grown men walking.
Have nothing to add to conversation about childhood and mischief, they were too busy working for their life and merely trying to survive.
There is no laughter that isn't cruel,
there is no love without a master to control,
there is no grace that doesn't end in blackmail,
there is no such thing as something for nothing.
When they hear love they see bluffing,
when they notice joy it is like
the extra stuffing that falls out of the teddy bear,
just something to be beaten out of you
either by the unforgiving hands of time
or an unfathomable sea of joy.
Change cannot happen unless it begins
where so much must end.
And young boys learn that all men lose friends,
and that is how the grow up,
and stay and never go back.
Hardened forever by the price they paid
for youth and naivety.
If you want strong men in society,
you must first plant good boys that see that weakness is rarely ever in tears
but rather in the refusal to shed them,
that blood is never something to be drawn out
but to be cherished
and that love is never
just the warmth of a woman's body,
but the woman herself and everything that she is.
Last, that men never just appear,
they grow and learn and make mistakes
and repeat the process until they too learn
that all those lessons make them who they are
and the boy they used to be is still part of that.
SK
