When we think about moments that epitomize manliness, we often think of the captain going down with the ship, the men who allow the women and children to go first, the soldier who throws himself on a grenade to shield his brothers from the blow, the old man who attempts to save a drowning child and perishes himself in the waves. The common denominator in such scenarios is this: sacrifice. Sacrifice is arguably the manliest of virtues. It is the ability to give up our desires, sometimes even our lives, to aid and benefit someone else.

While most of us will never be called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice, there is one sacrifice every man is both capable of making and should be making: the sacrifice of his time and resources in service to others.

Even men who don’t consider themselves materialistic, can be absolutely greedy with their time. But while holding tightly to our time and resources seems in the moment to protect our happiness, in the long run, this selfishness cankers our souls. The more tightly we hold to things, the less we enjoy them. Selfishness makes us needlessly bitter and contemptible, never feeling like we have enough, always worried that someone is going to take away our stuff. In not sharing of our time, talents, and resources, we end up feeling empty, not full. Service should thus be a part of every man’s life, lest he along with Ebenezer Scrooge should despair, “Not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunity misused! Yet such was I! Oh! Such was I!”

Our Obligation to Serve

Everybody knows that life isn’t fair. Some of us have a lot and some of us have a little. We can throw up our hands at this disparity, or we can do as much as we can to add balance to the universe. If you are lucky enough to have more talents and resources than someone else, then show your gratitude for these things by putting some back in the pot. Where much is given much is required.

Part of the warrior’s code that every soldier lives by is the maxim, “I will never leave a fallen comrade.” Thus, in the heat of battle, when someone cries out, “Man down!” the troops mobilize to get their fallen comrade to safety. A medic or another soldier will brave the hail of bullets to save their comrade.

There are a lot of men down these days. They’re wounded on the battlefield of life, not with bullets but with poverty, illiteracy, and hopelessness. As part of the brotherhood of man, we have an obligation not to leave our comrades behind. As the saying goes, “The public service we render is the rent we pay for our place on earth.”

The Benefits of Service

Of course the greatest benefit of service, is the help that those in need receive from you. Service can transform lives, communities, and nations. But giving service is one of the greatest paradoxes of life. For although it seems as if we sacrifice in giving away our time and resources, we actually get a whole host of benefits in return. In giving, we get. It’s a mystery, but it’s absolutely true. Serving can transform your life in the following ways:

Makes you happy. One of the first words a child learns is “mine.” And we often navigate life with this simple philosophy: “What in it for me?” But as mentioned above, such selfishness does not bring us contentment or peace. It’s giving, not getting, they brings us real happiness. I’ll admit that when I’m asked to do a service project or when I’m waking up at 7 in the morning on a Saturday to go help somebody, I don’t always feel very happy. Often, I grumble about it. But every single time I’ve manned up and gone and done the service, I’ve felt happy and satisfied afterward. Every single time. Service just makes you feel good about yourself and about life.

Puts your problems in perspective. We often think that our problems our huge. And they feel huge because we have nothing to compare them to except our own life experiences. But when we serve those less fortunate then us, we come to see how good we have it. Our problems start to seem relatively small. And our gratitude for all the good things we have in life increases exponentially.

Breaks down prejudice. It’s easy to paint people we’ve never had any contact with broad strokes, to think we have them all figured out. Immigrants, poor people, criminals and so on-we think we know their story. We often formulate our opinions on such people without ever having talked to a single one of them. But when we work one on one with people different than us, we come to really love them and know them, and our compassion and empathy grows. We don’t see them as stereotypes, but as flesh and blood people, people whose problems are often far more complicated than we could have previously imagined.

Helps you find yourself. A lot of people talk, and agonize over, “finding themselves.” They want to find their authentic selves, who they really are. To this end, many traipse through Europe or go to grad school. There’s nothing wrong with such pursuits, but there’s no better way to get to the core of who you are than serving others. It will peel back the layers of your artifice and reveal what you’re really made of and what you really value. I can’t explain in words why it has this effect, but it does. I think it’s like the saying, “The watched pot never boils.” The more time you spend thinking about who you are, the more elusive the answer gets. As soon as you turn your focus to others, your true self is revealed.

How to Find Service Opportunities

One of the reasons many of us don’t serve more is not because we don’t have the desire, but simply because we don’t know how to get involved. We don’t know where to jump in. Here are some suggestions on finding a place to volunteer:

Volunteer with a Preexisting Organization

There are lots of established organizations out there that are always looking for volunteers. All you have to do is sign up. You might want to check out these:

Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America

The Red Cross

Habitat for Humanity

Boys Scouts of America

Meals on Wheels

Check a Website

There are several websites out there that  simplify the process of finding a service opportunity. You simply enter your location to view a list of positions that organizations need filled by a volunteer.

Volunteer Match

Serve Net

Serve.gov. Our task today also coincides with President Obama’s  “United We Serve” project, a nationwide effort to get all Americans to do some service this summer to help our country’s renewal and recovery.

Call an Organization

If you already know an area where you’d like to serve, than call up an organization and asks about volunteer opportunities. For example, if you’d like to work in education, call up a school. If you want to help the sick, call a hospital. Other possibilities include prisons, churches, retirement homes and charitable organizations. Or you might try to combine an old passion with your desire to serve by signing up to be a volunteer firefighter.

Join a Fraternal Organization

While we often think of fraternal organizations like the Masons and Shriners in conjunction with their ceremonies and rituals or as those guys who ride around on three-wheelers in parades, one of the main functions of lodges today it to perform community service. Joining an organization like the Masons will provide you with great service opportunities so you don’t have to go hunting them down.

Start Your Own Project

All that’s needed to start a service project is to identify a need in your community and then fill it. For example, Buzz started a project in his town of Montpelier, Vermont to bring firewood to the needy. Energy costs are sky high these days, and many people in places like Vermont can’t afford to heat their home electrically in the winter. They therefore use a wood burning stove to keep warm, but groups like the elderly and the sick aren’t able to go gather the wood they need. Buzz chops down trees (legally), splits the wood, and then delivers it to those who need it. Any man can do something similar. And it doesn’t have to be  on a big scale either. If there’s a little old lady down the street, why not ask  if you can mow her lawn or run some errands for her?

Today’s task: Commit to do some service. You obviously don’t have to do the service in the next 24 hours. Your task is simply to find a project or opportunity you’d like to volunteer for and sign up if you can. Or come up with a project that you’re going to create yourelf. Let us know what you decide to do in the Community.

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There’s nothing quite like the uninterrupted solitude of reading in the bathroom. I’m sure if you go into most men’s bathrooms in their homes, you’ll find a stack of Popular Mechanics or maybe a book or two next to the john. Believe it or not, reading in the bathroom is a manly tradition that dates back to ancient Rome. Some Roman baths contained libraries so you could leisurely peruse a scroll while you took care of business. Saint Gregory Palamas, a monk who lived in the 12th Century, recommended the toilet of medieval fortresses as the best place to get some reading done.

Since then, the manly tradition of bathroom reading has been passed down through the generations. JFK supposedly put the finishing touches on his inauguration speech in the bathroom and W.C. Fields considered the bathroom his personal library. Today, millions of men across the world take part in this ritual.

To recognize this manly tradition, June has been declared National Bathroom Reading Month. I’m not exactly sure what that means, but I’m down with dedicating an entire month to bathroom reading.

While there’s nothing like rolling up a magazine while you’re taking care of business, how would you like to upgrade your bathroom reading with an Amazon Kindle? Interested? Read on.

The Prize

An Amazon Kindle. I’m sure you’ve heard of it. It’s Amazon’s wireless eBook reader. It’s slim, lightweight, and you can download newspapers, magazines, and and up to 1,500 books. It’s the perfect bathroom reading accessory. I’m sure your wife or significant other will appreciate how uncluttered the toilet area will become as you move all your favorite reads to the Kindle. With the Kindle, you can even read the Art of Manliness from the pot. You can’t get much manlier than that.

The Kindle retails at $359. That’s a quite a chunk of change. How nice would it be to get one for free?

The Contest

The fine gentlemen at The Toilet Paper are offering a FREE Amazon Kindle to one lucky AoM reader in honor of National Bathroom Reading Month. To enter, all you have to do is sign up for their free daily newsletter. That’s it! They will record every new signup from the AoM readership and select a winner once the sweepstakes is over!

The Toilet Paper calls themselves “Daily News for the Thinking Man.” Their newsletter is the perfect bathroom reading material. Each day, the editors take a current news story and give you the back story on it with interesting tidbits, quotes, and statistics in an easy to read format. Just print it off and take it with you when you’re doing your thing. When you’re done, your brain canister will be filled with some nifty facts and trivia that you can bring up around the water cooler and throughout the day.

Deadline to enter is June 30, 2009. So you have the rest of the month to enter. What are you waiting for? Do it!

And while we’re on the topic of bathroom reading, what do you like to read while you’re on the john? Let us know in the comments below.

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As if you didn’t have enough reasons to hang out in the Art of Manliness Community already, one of the best Groups in the Community, the PhotoGroup, has launched AoM’s very first photo contest. The huhman, the Community’s elder statesman and everyone’s all-around favorite Community member, generously set up the whole thing. Here are the details:

CONTEST IS OPEN FOR SUBMISSIONS THE ENTIRE MONTH OF JUNE 2009

HOW TO ENTER: Enter a photo by joining the PhotoGroup, and attaching a photo to your response in this discussion, not a new discussion.

CONTEST RULES
1 . Entry photos must somehow be related to “fathers.” (See below for a more thorough explanation of this contest theme.*)

2 . 1 photo per person. Contest is open to all AoM Community members.

3 . Post-processing or photo editing is allowed. Please keep it to a minimum.

4 . Photos must have been taken by the person who submits it. Please do not submit work that isn’t yours. To do so just wouldn’t be manly.

Members are asked to give their opinions about entries. The entries will then be narrowed down to three. This will take place during the first few days after contest ends (6-30-09). The three finalists will be voted on, in a new discussion; and the winner will be determined at the conclusion of the final vote.

Winner’s name will be announced in the AoM Community, as well as on the AoM main site. Grand Prize is a very cool shirt from one of AoM’s best friends, Hawaiiabera. See below… even Brett can look cool in one of these awesome “Friday Night” shirts, from Hawaiiabera (Just having a little fun at your expense Brett, thanks to PhotoShop)

* What is the theme of this photo contest?
In the U.S., and many other countries, June 21, is the day set aside to honor fathers. In keeping with that, we’ve themed our first AoM photo contest around Fathers. (A manly idea, for sure!). Photos can be of your father, your grandfather, you (as a father), or even a snapshot of some random guy doing something in a fatherly way. The possibilities are endless. The point is, this web site is dedicated to the art of manliness; and June is the month set aside to honor fathers. What better time and way than now to do just that! Please caption your entries, and feel free to tell us as much as you’d like to help “capture the moment”. If all goes well, the entries should spark a lot of conversation; and that is exactly what AoM is all about!

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You can tell a lot about a man by the stuff he carries in his pockets. As a boy, I was always intrigued by the things my grandpa and dad carried in their pants  every day. I loved rummaging around in the basket on top of the refrigerator where my dad kept the contents of his pockets. Everything in there just seemed so cool and manly.

Theodore Roosevelt had the same fascination with his father’s pockets as a boy. In his autobiography, he gives this description of watching his dad empty his pockets every day after returning home from work:

We used to wait in the library in the evening until we could hear his key rattling in the latch of the front hall, and then rush out to greet him; and we would troop into his room while he was dressing, to stay there as long as we were permitted, eagerly examining anything which came out of his pockets which could be regarded as an attractive novelty. Every child has fixed in his memory various details which strike it as of grave importance. The trinkets he used to keep in a little box on his dressing-table we children always used to speak of as “treasures.” The word, and some of the trinkets themselves, passed on to the next generation.

Treasures. That’s probably the best way to describe how I felt about the contents of my dad’s pockets. I think I even called them that as a boy. I’ve started to build the manly contents of my pockets. Hopefully, one day my kids will feel the same way about my “treasures” as TR and I did about our dad’s.

This week, we want to see what you carrying around in your pockets. And to help motivate you to share, the folks at W.R. Case & Sons Cutlery Co. is giving away a free Case pocket knife.

The Prize

W.R. Case & Sons Cutlery Co. is based out of Bradford, PA and has been in the knife-making business since 1889. Each knife is handcrafted in the USA by a team of talented artisans, so you know you’re getting a quality tool.

The lucky winner of The Case  “What’s In Your Pocket?” Giveaway will have their pick of one of these handsome Case pocket knives. The estimated value of the knives is between $150-$175, depending on the knife you pick. Here’s a look at your options:

Sway Back Jack

This pattern was introduced less than a year ago. It’s  3-1/5” closed length and weighs 2.2 oz. The Sway Back Jack comes with a  Genuine Stag handle.

RussLock

The RussLock pattern was ‘invented’ by one of Case’s longtime cutlers, Tommy Hart. Tommy was with the company for 50 years! The RussLock is named after Case’s founder, John Russell (“Russ”) Case. It measures 4-1/4” in length when closed and weighs 2.7 oz. It has a navy blue bone handle and a red Case logo shield. The knife’s ‘tail’ allows for one-handed opening.

Mini Trapper

The Mini Trapper is just the right size for a knife newbie – 3-1/2” in length when closed and weighs 2.7 oz.  This handle color is called “Old Red Bone,” and it has a “pocket-worn” look.

In addition to the knife, the winner will get a Case golf shirt and nickle-silver ball marker.

How To Enter

So are you ready to get your hands on one of these knives? Here’s how to enter the giveaway:

Step 1. Join the Art of Manliness Community.

Step 2. Take a photo of the contents of your pockets.

Step 3. Upload the photo to the Art of Manliness Community photo page.

Step 4. Tag your photo with “Case.” This step is important! If you don’t tag your photo with “Case,” we can’t tell that you entered. If the photo is not tagged correctly, you’re not entered.

I even made a quick screencast to help you visual learners out there. View it here.

Deadline to enter is Sunday, May 2 at 10 PM CST.

The folks at Case knives will then pick the winner.

To start things off, here’s a pic of what I usually have in my pockets:

Billfold, Blackberry, Case pocket knife, hankie, Moleskine, and small pocket pen.

Now it’s your turn. Head on over to the Community section and share with us the contents of your pockets.

Here are the entries that have been submitted so far:

Find more photos like this on Art of Manliness

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Image from jimlux38

We’re happy to announce the launch of a new feature on Art of Manliness- The Art of Manliness Community. Our goal is to make The Art of Manliness more than just a blog that people passively read. We want AoM to become an active online community where men can hang out and help each other become better men. We’ve been doing a “beta” test with the community page for the past couple of months and have received rave reviews from participants. I think it’s ready to be officially launched. So without further ado, let me introduce you to The Art of Manliness Community page.

The best way to describe The Art of Manliness Community is that it’s like Facebook, but for manly men (and the women who love them). When you sign up, you can create a profile page where you can upload your photo and tell us little bit about yourself. It’s been fun reading everyone’s profile and learning more about the people who read AoM. But the community page is more than just a profile page. It has a ton of features that will allow you to interact with other AoM community members and create your own content.

Photos

You can upload photos of yourself doing manly activities like hunting or working on an engine. Or you can share pics of you and your family. Whatever you want (except porn of course). One thing we’re hoping people will do with the photo section is upload their best vintage manly photos of their dads and grandfathers. I’d love for the photo section to be a place where people can share stories about the men who have inspired manliness in their lives. It can be a place where their legacy continues. If we find a pic that we particularly like, we’d love to feature it on the main site.

Personal Blog

Your community page has a place where you can write your own blog posts. This can be used in an infinite number of ways. First, you can use it  as a personal blog where you share your personal journey on rediscovering the lost art of manliness. I’m interested in reading your insights on what it means to be a man. Another way you can use the blog is to share manly tips and advice. Reading the comments on the main blog, we know there are lots of you out there that have some great advice for men on a variety of subjects. Got a workout plan that you think will work for others? Share the plan on your blog. Are you an expert in an essential man skill? Write a how-to for others. And just as with the main blog, community members can comment on your posts and add their insights to it as well. If we find a member blog post that we think is particularly good, we’d love to share it on the main site. This is a chance for you to get your content read by hundreds of thousands of visitors a month!

Videos

Got a manly video? Then upload it in the video section. So far we’ve had people upload quick how-to videos and inspiring montages. So if you’re tired of watching videos of dudes getting kicked in the nuts, make sure to check out the video section.

Groups

With The Art of Manliness Community, you can create smaller groups of like minded men to discuss a particular subject. If you’re a Christian, you can start a Christian group. If you’re an atheist, you can start a group discussing what manliness means while being an atheist. You can even start fun groups. Right now we have a group dedicated to Scotch Whisky and Photography. We also have several groups for men living in different states. For example, an Oklahoma group and Illinois group. I’d love to see AoM members actually schedule meetups to grab a beer together and hang out. Which leads me to the next community feature…

Events

You can schedule and plan events in the AoM community. Say you’re in Minnesota and want to go hunting for the weekend, but your usual hunting buddies aren’t available. You can easily find another hunting partner by going on the community page and creating an event. Other people will see it and if they can come, they can sign up. After that, you can make arrangements with each other. The event feature can also be used to plan AoM meetups and make some new man friends.

Use the Community, Earn Points, Win Prizes

As an incentive for people to use the community, we’ve set up a point system that rewards individuals who contribute to it. After you’ve earned a certain amount of points, you’ll be rewarded with cool manly gear. Right now we’re giving away an official AoM t-shirt to those who earn 1,000 points, but stay tuned for even more man prizes.

Join Today!

So what are you waiting for? Sign up today and start interacting with the manliest men on the internet.

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