Little things grow into big things. Big things grow into bigger things, and those grow into huge ones. Yes, yes, until they die, I get that. I’m not getting to the laws of thermodynamics.
But whether you call it evolution or entropy, it’s a stone-cold fact that the Mentor, Discover, Inspire grouping known as Atlas has now, as of this month, existed for eight years. And, like the universe’s origins in the Big Bang, it was born in an instant. There was a flash of energy and something came out of nothing.
Image by Nihal Prabhudesai
And just like that universe, Atlas has been expanding rapidly ever since.
It began with three men: one on Vancouver Island, another in northern California and a third in Asia. Then came the flash and four more men too remote to meet on the ground. It was The Zoom Team then until they gave it a name: Team Atlas. Tennessee was now represented, and Toronto, along with southern California, Nova Scotia, and more.
Whether it was the strong force, or some specific valence inherent in its formation, Atlas began attracting far-flung men all over the globe. Suddenly, Taiwan was in Atlas. So were Montreal and Ottawa, and Washington State and Medicine Hat. Brazil showed up next and Winnipeg, and Costa Rica, and on and on.
Photo by Viktor Forgacs
Such a team was inconceivable in the 30 years of MDI history to that point. The means did not exist to support it, and men who couldn’t physically get to a meeting were SOL. Atlas solved all of that.
By now Team Atlas had split, then split again, and soon it had become Tribe Atlas. Suddenly, the President of MDI was in Atlas. The Executive Director was in Atlas too, and shortly the Chairman of the Board was an Atlas man also. That made five teams, then six, and now the little thing was becoming a big thing.
Then, too soon, Atlas applied to become a Division. It failed to pass muster the first time but applied again and suddenly it was Atlas Division. It had contained men from as many as ten different nations. It also boasted Quema tus Naves, MDI’s first Spanish-language team. This ethereal, intercontinental, multilingual molecule had coalesced into a juggernaut.
Then, Atlas hit 100 men.
Image created using Gemini_Ai Software
But due to MDI’s structural norms, and the very real need for support, Atlas Division, was attached to the Canadian Region. It was somewhat of an irony for an entity unbound by location to be so attached but the support was real. It gave Atlas time to grow, and to attract more atoms from ever more places — Indiana, Nebraska for God’s sake, Vienna, Poland, Cambodia. Inside the Canadian Region — later dubbed the Continental—a new, landless Region was incubating.
And now, with a membership of 120 men and 16 teams as of this date, Atlas has, at last, become what it was clearly born to be. A Region of its own. A truly global entity with the ability to serve men wherever they are.
The Stats per mdiconnect.org
Entropy being what it is, and the third law of thermodynamics, and the normal tendency of things that are small to get bigger until they get smaller again… it is with pride that we introduce this fledgeling Region, Atlas Region, still in its infancy, still growing, still attracting more atoms from more places.
So Happy Birthday, Atlas! But don’t rest on your laurels. There’s enormous work still to be done. We are in Cambodia but no Cambodians are in us. We are in Vietnam and Poland but no Vietnamese or Polish natives are members. This is where the work is now, this is the edge.
Our Spanish-language team could lead the way: if Atlas can grow as it did, certainly such a team can do so too and, in time, become their own Spanish-language Region. That would open what we have to more than 300-million Spanish-speaking men. The same for Brazil’s 105 million and Vietnam’s fifty. But there are 1.3 million men in Chicago, too, yet no MDI teams, so there plenty of work for Atlas to do.
Only Atlas, with all its global electrons, can do all of this; can bring Mentor, Discover, Inspire to the world writ large and in many languages. Let’s go, men! There’s work to be done.
That must be the mission of Atlas Region: to cause greatness by mentoring men all over the world to live with excellence. The headlines suggest we’d better get started. Now. Today.
About the Author
Dan Kempner is a writer based in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam, where he lives, works. He is the Executive Editor of MDI Legacy Magazine and is very happily married with two young daughters.
He is one of the six founding members of Atlas.
A Word on the Fronispiece...
Image generated using Gemini_Ai software.
