Men are worthy of love, of discovering their unique and transformative purpose toward the common good, to be affirmed in their gifts and welcomed into communities in which they can share their needs. Our shared culture rarely recognizes this profound value. The aggressive alpha male is applauded, the isolated guy ignored, the multi-faceted vibrancy of manhood diminished. This is a crisis - but the crisis in masculinity is a crisis of storytelling.

The invitation is to imagine ourselves as firekeepers and storytellers.

The Firekeeper - those who tend the hearth, gather the fuel and know how to use it (and also when to douse the flames), and provide an anchoring steward for ourselves as individuals and in community.

The Storyteller - the one who makes sense of it all, discerning the most life-giving ways of telling ourselves into being. If stories shape our lives for better or worse, then the inner storyteller - animated by the firekeeper - deserves as much attention as the need for food, water, air, and shelter.

Indeed, the story we tell, and the parts of ourselves we allow into the light, for reimagining, renovating, and re-enchanting, may be the most vital shelter any of us ever experience.

But more than imagining and experimenting with the roles of storyteller and firekeeper, there is the underlying need for nurturance, acceptance, and affirmation beyond whatever roles men may play. As bell hooks wrote:

To create loving men, we must love males. Loving maleness is different from praising and rewarding males for living up to sexist-defined notions of male identity. Caring about men because of what they do for us is not the same as loving males for simply being. When we love maleness, we extend our love where males are performing or not. Performance is different from simply being. In patriarchal culture males are not allowed simply to be who they are and to glory in their unique identity. Their value is always determined by what they do. In an anti-patriarchal culture males do not have to prove their value and worth. They know from birth that simply being gives them value, the right to be cherished and loved.

So we invite you to join us this October for a long weekend of storytelling, music, workshops, hikes, movies, reflective time, food that honors the ecosystem and our desire for a rainbow of flavor, and an abundance of community weaving a path toward a more whole, inclusive, creative manhood: one in which acceptance, affirmation, and love are foundational.

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