What Does MDI Fight For?

James Anthony Ellis
Legacy Magazine Editor

The state of the union for MDI – such a broad theme, covering such a wide landscape.

For me, the question climbs higher than a weekly circle-up of men looking for fun, camaraderie and support … and elevates towards a world view – a humanity level – benchmarks we can use for addressing our work here.

I question what we are fighting for and what we are up against.

Yes, there are needs for fun activities and a chance to get away with our teammates to focus on our successful lives and the barriers between us and getting there. And yet there is more … and there has been more.

Just as the MDI President Chris Christopher has noted in the article about the “state of the union,” a focus on the MDI’s Mission Statement could net us such results:

• We cause greatness in all areas of our lives.
• We mentor men to live with excellence.
• We develop men into mature masculine leaders.
• For all, we enjoy successful families, careers and communities.

That is mighty indeed.

In days of yore – when men like dinosaur legend Rick Russell roamed the planet – the push was for a men’s team on every corner. There was talk about saving men’s lives, saving marriages for the sake of the offspring, keeping our balls intact and battling a foe we couldn’t even see.

In the past, there was a definite warning echoed loud and clear: the “feminization of men” will ultimately lead to the dismantling of our society’s backbone, with consequences more dire than we could imagine.

The bottom line: we were rescuing masculinity for the sake of future generations.

That is no small endeavor. That was a mission and purpose that could barely be topped.

Such a purpose created a sense of urgency. Into the late 1990s, our men’s circles fought to hold high standards, embrace our outrageous unreasonable nature, and fill Sterling Weekend initiation events. The tasks put before us at team meetings and initiation-into-manhood events were fueled by a concern of a crumbling community and a desire to serve humanity at the highest level. Maybe that sounds dramatic and possibly out of reach, but haven’t we also been guided to reach for the wildly important goals?

Such a higher purpose spurred on behaviors such as truly challenging a man contemplating divorce, stepping right into someone’s face who wasn’t pulling his weight at team meetings, committing to division meetings and events, and getting punched in the arm if any “team” player ever used the dreaded “G word” … “group” if I may.

We did not gather in “groups” where men would easily miss opportunities to gather as one. We were “teams” of men, and teams were to serve all men in their lives and relationships, as well as rescue masculinity from the tempting forces of femininity that could weaken, dampen and destroy it.

Many of these themes and strategies are alive within MDI men’s circles. At the same time, I believe we’ve lost the aim, on some level, of securing the fragile hold on masculinity. Not in all arenas, not on all teams or regions. But as a whole. We have lost a sense of urgency to save lives and rescue this thing we call “manhood.”

And it is ironic this would be the case given the fact the battle has become bigger than ever. Must anyone point out the obvious:

• Superior male role models are few and far between.
• Hollywood and theater reflect the weakling male in leading roles.
• Fathering in the form of making life more challenging is defunct; participation trophies are now the norm.
• Young men are being given puberty blockers and worse.
• The adjective for masculinity is often “toxic.”
• Fathers are being thrown away – in divorce courts and elsewhere – replaced in families by video games, gangs and hollow echoes down the hall.
• And within the eyes of the boys … you will see if you look: emptiness, hopelessness, meaninglessness.

Yes, MDI makes countless moves to restore a mature masculine leader to support a return to a healthy masculinity.

But the urgency, the stated purpose, the mission out front … it has been watered down, weakened by perhaps the same forces that are tearing down men and the very fabric of our society.

Presently, it could be true that our men are more insular with a main focus on their own personal success rather than a bigger picture. If not focusing on a division, they may bring a level of care to mainly their teams and on rare occasion only expanding to include their smaller individual selves. Perhaps those are the men who need a punch in the arm.

No matter, it’s never too late. There is indeed a broadened reason we gather like we do … AND we can dig even deeper and traverse ever higher.

We can make the drive stronger, so much so that the state of the union for MDI will have at the forefront a driven desire to reclaim and restore the highest form of masculinity, one that will not only save lives and marriages but also our very own society itself.