See, Hear and Speak

On every single Tuesday for 25 years Bob, Larry and Skip have gotten together to shoot the shit.. 

that's the way they explained it to me. 

Sitting in a coffee shop alone is the best way to observe people, to watch how they enter, who they enter with and the manner in which they do the coffee shop things. 

A coffee shop draws people in, all people in. 

Bob, Larry and Skip grew up together in this little suburb outside Atlanta. They all went different directions through the years but ended up right back there together every Tuesday afternoon. 

What commitment I thought, such friendship is rare these days with everyone connected only by social media. These men had it right, they understood being together was better. They understood men needed connection, that men wanted to be seen by each other too. 

Someone tried to school me on how "real men" are lately and I was confused. These men told me stories about their lives, how they lived, loved and made mistakes in all of those. But not once in any of them did they mention bad intent, intent to be cruel, intent to be deceitful, intent to harm anyone in their stories. 

Instead I heard remorse, saw tears, witnessed empathy for the man next to them telling the tale. 

When did we start telling our boys how to be "real men" by showing them the opposite in our own lives? 

Bob, Larry and Skip were from a different generation of course, one with far less distractions than now. 

Now with the world trying to be "helpful" by bombarding us with not only information but content meant to confuse and trick your brain into doing back flips around your deep seated morality. 

The Proverbial Principle "See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil" is meant to teach us to be cautious of negative influences and embody ethical consequences. And if we do these things we ourselves will be spared from Evil. 

For the last 25 years Bob, Larry and Skip have gotten together to share this wisdom, to shoot the shit, to try their best to be real men. To recognize it all in each other, to call each other out and love each other through it all and I applaud them for all of that.