Imbolc Waxing Wild Moon
Blue Cloud Abbey
We met with five monks: Fathers Michael and Chris, Brothers Bob and Benet and Abbot Denis. The conversation had a lot of heart, touching on why each of us belonged–and continued to belong–to our respective communities.
We discussed with them the creation of a rule, a Way of the Woolly Mammoth. If done well and distributed widely, it might have an impact on those men who now live solitary male lives. A solitary male life, we believe, is the norm.
As Father Michael suggested, the man who says his wife is his best friend puts a burden on the marriage relationship. That is, in fact, a solitary male life with work and family being places where the man has definition by role: husband, employee or owner, but has no place as a man. This may seem peculiar or idiosyncratic to our perspective, but we know the richness of having significant male relationships held together over time.
That richness informs the gender specific aspects of our life by giving back to those roles a renewed sense of what it is to be a man, a man in whole, in relationship with a woman or a business or another partner. A renewed sense of what it means to be a father, grandfather, uncle or mentor also grows with organic vitality from this soil.
