Let me tell you why we shouldn't be so quick to impose age limits on this forum; the entire reason I post on this board at all is because I want to help men both older and younger than myself avoid the traps and the sh!t I've stepped in along the way to becoming who I am. This is definitely not some addmission of attaining some higher state of purpose or perfection, far from it actually. I'd like to think people value the words and, dare I say, wisdom that I offer here, but this isn't a result of doing everything the right way so much as it is getting everything wrong and learning from the lumps I took. Like any good philosopher, the only thing I know is that I know nothing thus I must remain the eternal student.
That said, I craft my posts here and counsel in my 'real life' in order to teach guys as young as 12 and as old as 70 to avoid the pits I've fallen into. I don't have to do this. I'm often asked why I even bother when some particularly hard-headed teenager has been so indoctrinated into this feminized ego-investment of his personality that I get berated for it. I have a family, a hot ass wife, a precocious and whip-smart 7 y.o. daughter, a terrific job that I make excellent money at using my God given talents, why bother? I'm set and sometimes I confront myself on this when I feel like I'm investing myself too much into a loosing cause.
That is until a personal friend swallows a bullet over a ONEitis ego investment that he never came to terms with or unlearned. I could care less, until a 65 y.o. man confesses to me how he'll "never understand women" after placating and suplicating to his wife's every whim and mood swing for the last 20+ years of marriage in a never ending effort to be 'worthy' of the intimacy she's blackmailed him with for those years. I don't care until a 17 y.o. kid stabs the 'new' boyfriend of his 'soulmate' who dumped him 30 times and spends the rest of his life in prison because "she was the ONE man." It doesn't bother me until I see a 24 y.o. friend marry a single Mommie with 3 children from 2 different fathers because she "accidentally got pregnant" by him with her 4th child and he felt it was the "right thing to do" in assuming the reponsibilities for her prior indiscretions. I don't have a problem with it until I'm called a mysoginist for being 'judgemental' when I have a problem with a woman who marries a millionaire 7 months after her husband of 20 years hangs himself, leaving 2 children behind and she disowns any family and friends that may call her character into question. Yeah, that's when I have an impulse to get involved.
So let us not be so hasty to isolate ourselves to our own little clique where we can offer some kind of older 'mens group' support only privately to each other. The youngsters can benefit greatly from our own downfalls as well, even when they are annoying. These guys are here because they lack something that their own Fathers for whatever reason neglected to instill in them. No one's taught them positive masculinity, or worse yet, they've learned a watered down 'metrosexual' masculine identity that feminized society has fantastically idealized. It's a dirty job, but someones got to do it.
And I know, because I was that pre-whipped teenager who would've spat in the face of anything counter to what I was taught were out-dated ways of thinking about gender. The 17-18 y.o. Rollo Tomassi would've shook his head at the advice I profess here and asked for a magic pill that would make my soulmate desire me unconditionally.
So, gentlemen of the Mature board, I'll say don't scorn the Highschool board or the General forum ether. Yes, you will get called to their floor, but it's medicine that only you can deliver. This isn't to deemphasize the need for older men to be educated as well ( I know far too many mature guys in need of this re-education), but take a deep breath and try to recount where your own head was when you were 17, 25, 32 and yes, even 40.
