The sight of a maneless teenager sheepishly skulking around is enough to give any man pause for embarrassment, intuitively understanding with a nod and a sad shadow of recognition. A certain loss for words that hopes the young man finds the character within to overcome just like every man had to face throughout all of history. The options aren't that much better. . . . . die young or "die forever" as you stay emotionally young.

For any kid who ever considered writing away for one of those "Charles Atlas" programs in the back of comic books, "the big man" on the beach who "punches out" the bully and patrols his perimeter, the more pathetic truths are laid out in the jerking inefficiency of cables that tires you out in short order, even set on the lowest level of resistance and throwing down a spike of discouragement on the road to frictionless solutions.

Call it the A.M. radio culture when you had blue-collar guys into electronics or banjos or autos, the bell ringing with your cautious entry in the postage stamp-sized guitar shop. In the dream state, a 1981 or 1982 ethos, you would walk in wearing a heavy metal t-shirt and jeans with a pretty girl on your arm and "show her off", acting as if you had important business about town before stepping out on your motorcycle and leaving these poor men to their counters, rooting for you and the American promise of youth.

In life, there is "the poker game" where players do not show all of their cards in a match of mutually-shared, profitable hallucination. Sometimes, we can find ourselves juggling with abstracts; dabbling with the theoretical shallows of speculation with ineffective risks and very little hard work that would want to think that we were naturally entitled to "good things", like the affections from the older girl from the fancy side of town. Yes, "that man should be judged by the content of his character", if not padded with other levels of equalitarian nonsense that hide the idea that life could be otherwise that bleak and empty.

There is always the exercise of power, of exclusivity-- and sometimes it's now who you "let in" but you kept out. A goofy, verbose, overfriendly kid is not given admittance when power is about the control of one's manner. . . . . the carefree, bored, banal, and contemptuous that needs you far less than you need them. And how it hits home, pressing into your side with rib-digging dejection as you eat with your family: the only ones who care about you on this "no man's land".

A noble "knight" says what he means with a clear eye, and most. . . . . if not all, so-called "bottomless conundrums" are solved through effective action and keeping busy with vigorous hobbies. Men are builders, tinkers, craftsman, and are king of their castle they put together brick-by-brick through hard work, sweat, and ingenuity. They unsheath their sword and gallop off to honor their lady's request because to love is to serve and he is most definitely in charge here.

Go out and defend your lady. . . . . and pick up dinner on the way home. She'll be eternally grateful and will let you give her a big hug.

Click here for a Teenage Boy's Trepidation!!

(Outtakes/Bloopers Reel Below)