A ‘Firepit Chat’ with Chris Christopher
President: Mentor, Discover, Inspire
This month we consider men and rites of passage. As I think about my life these past 69 years, there have been a number of opportunities to experience what can be described as rites of passage. At 13, the Episcopal church made me a man when I was confirmed. There was preparation, training, ritual, observers, and ceremony. It didn’t work: I was still a wet-behind-the-ears teenager, hardly any kind of man.
At 17 I became a manager of a fast food restaurant. I had staff, I had responsibility, but there was no rite of passage into manhood. Graduations from high school, college, and graduate school had some of the elements of a rite of passage. All had lots of training before the ceremony, lots of pomp and circumstance, but in the end, while I had great academic growth, there was no passage into the world of mature masculinity.
Even a responsible legal career, clients paying large fees for my services; real management responsibility with lots of employees; a wedding ceremony, and the birth of my son; these were not enough to make me embrace that I needed to make that passage from whatever I was to the world of mature masculinity.
The moment I realized I had to make that journey was the moment I first held my daughter. At that instant, I realized I had to own my masculinity and own being the leader I needed to be for my family. I remember being asked how I felt when I held her and all I could say was: responsible.
Even though I knew it was time to embrace mature masculinity, it was not until my cousin sponsored me to a weekend event in November 1997 that I finally had a true rite-of-passage into masculinity. There were all the elements: a trial, training, lots of support from other men; ceremony, and observers to honor the completion of that trial. This time, I was ready to leave the man I had been behind.
MDI has The Art of Masculinity, a true rite-of-passage experience tailored to our times. It prepares men to take on the joys, burdens, and responsibilities of masculinity. Once a man experiences TAOM, he starts or continues his journey to mature masculinity. Point teams, our membership training program, leadership jobs, a Legacy Discovery experience; all these help that man following the rite-of-passage of TAOM.
As much fun as I had before my “real” rite of passage in 1997, my life has been so much richer and more joyful once I embraced my mature masculinity. We offer that choice every day to men all over the world. Let’s go find the men hungry for that rite of passage and start them on their way.
