Manliness, part three: Beardenzia

It started, as all the great quasi-imaginary nations do, with a game of Risk. Ryan and I had our backs against the wall; Sarah was asleep and Kaci controlled Australia [the key to the game] and was sweeping across Asia. Ryan and I looked at each other, seeing only each other's beard, we knew that there must be an alliance. And so the newly formed alliance of the Beardenzian Kingdom defeated the not-so-evil Kacian Empire. We talked about Beardenzia more and more, until it annoyed the womenfolk greatly, and then we talked it about it more. We developed Beardenzian mythology and proclaimed ourselves the long-lost descendants of the Beardenzian exiles.

It was/is humorous, yes, but looking back the founding of Beardenzia signaled the beginning of a good friendship and the founding of a new group of men. It isn't that Ryan and I weren't friends at that point, but we were just becoming closer, and the not-so-inside joke of Beardenzia was important for two reasons: one, it gave us something to invest in and laugh at, and two, Beardenzia itself is symbolic of the journey that he and I are on, somewhat* together.

We meet now, on a semi-regular basis, the "heads" of the clans of Beardenzia**. We joke about our mythological ancestors, but we also discuss how we can be more responsible in our own lives, how we can be better leaders in our relationships and how we can encourage such behavior in the men around us. We aren't always the best at encouraging the men around us, but we work on it. We try to humble ourselves before God, admitting that we don't always know best, even if we sometimes act like it. In this way, as a community, we pursue God and manliness.

In my life I have been part of numerous awesome groups of guys. I don't want to dismiss the men of Beardenzia as merely the latest group, because they do truly bless my life, but that doesn't mean they're any greater than all that have come before. As those groups have helped bring me to where I am now. And they may very well not be the last group of guys with such a huge influence in my life. What I great life I have, seriously. Oh, and we founded New Beardenzia - an actual real life place, but that, of course, is another story altogether. And it's top secret. you have my love.

Coming up - The end of academia?; World Cup love/hate; A personal history of interning.


* The journeys aren't exactly the same, but that doesn't mean we can't walk together along our own paths.
** My official title is: Travis, son of David, son of William, of the Red Beard Clan.