What does it mean to be a man?

Whatever meaning you come up with, it’s all just in your head (culture).

“If”

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master,
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

By Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936).

Fucking brilliant. :nodding:

Having balls, never bitching, not being afraid to tell somebody the truth, having a wife/girl that loves you and would do anything for you, never having regrets about anything you did…

:-k …Like Tony Soprano maybe?

Yeah ;)

Tony is good but Michael Corleone said it best, “Women and children can be foolish but men can’t.”

Being a man is about taking responsibility for your actions and those around you. Integrity, honesty, caring, and the balls to do what you know to be right are his trademarks. It’s a lifelong journey to be the best you can possibly be. You make a mistake, you learn from it and fix it and move on in the right direction.

Most importantly, being a man means raising your sons to be better than you were. To impart the wisdom of your years and save them some hassles, priceless.

Probably the best advice I have given my sons is to examine how the girls they date and their mothers treat the father. If it is in the least disrespectful, RUN for the nearest exit and don’t look back.