Quote:
Originally Posted by Cimarron29414
I'm confused. I thought we were trying to enumerate characteristics of "good men". What was it about your high school English teacher or whoever that made him a "good man"?
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He was unafraid to be creative, passionate, fun-loving, deeply serious about literature and philosophy, and to utterly reject the idea that he was somehow supposed to be "normal." He embraced being himself, and, unlike so many of my peers, made it clear that manliness was not merely a factor of athletic ability, or sexual prowess, or winning fights, or capacity for liquor. A man, he showed me, could be sensitive, thoughtful, artistic, cerebral, and easygoing-- and that those things also could be foundations for strong masculinity.
It was in his class that I read some of my favorite literary classics, and his discussions of them reinforced on me the notions that a man keeps his word, that a man behaves honorably, that a man stands by his friends and stands up for those who can't stand up for themselves, and so on.
And what is more, he told me to embrace my geekiness, my nerdliness, my bent for collecting random data, my love of books and movies and plays.... He taught me, without ever referencing our common Jewish identity, the very Jewish lesson that it is good for a man to be knowledgeable, and to pass on the knowledge that he has accrued.