Culture

Those Vikings Were Fiery Hombres!
I fell in love with the Netflix series. The theme song and opening trailer initially captivated me. Once I got into the first couple of episodes, I was hooked.
By Calvin London24 days ago in Men
Before John, There Was Wolf
I If a learned ancient Chinese scholar, well versed in the art of naming taboos , had walked into a Merovingian Frankish market in the year 600, he would have found the barbarians' names rather agreeable.
By Jinabout a month ago in Men
Patterns of Behavior
On March 8, 2025, I drove my son to youth group. The previous week, warm temperatures had melted the stubborn ice from the group leader's sloping yard, but two days before the youth gathered, unexpected snow fell again. The subsequent hard freeze made the leader's driveway and dooryard a glacial nightmare again, and when my son and I arrived, I told him to go in without me. I planned to take my time walking in.
By Mack D. Amesabout a month ago in Men
Men who fulfill
Dad was born in Maine in January 1933. He was the second child and son born to his parents, though his older brother died at a very young age. A sister and another brother were born in subsequent years, and they were raised together by God-fearing parents in southern Maine. Grandpa was a carpenter. Dad learned many skills from him. Gram taught briefly. She was frugal, but not cheap. During the Great Depression and World War II years when sugar, eggs, and other staples were rationed, Gram celebrated her children's half-birthdays as an excuse to bake cakes for them, since sweets were rare luxuries. Dad fondly remembered his mother's justification for that tradition.
By Mack D. Ames2 months ago in Men
Small Victories
Some people write thoughtful, planned prose. Others express themselves through poetry that flows from deeply intellectual ponderings. Then there are writers like me. “Stream of Consciousness” is too gentle for my style. “Raging River Rantings” is more accurate. It is not that I write angrily, but that as a violent river flows unpredictably, so also my thoughts move to and fro in seemingly disconnected ways. They link but occasionally splash bystanders in the process.
By Mack D. Ames2 months ago in Men
Ounce A Pawn A Thyme
I can't recall how I found Vocal Media. When I did, the stars shone brightly in my eyes. Dreams of won challenges danced in my head. Cha-ching, cha-ching was the song they sang. Then I wrote my first piece, crashed to earth, oh dang. Tried again, burned up. Once more. Gave up. Glassy-eyed, I knew I'd never crack the top two, so what would I or should I or could I do?
By Mack D. Ames2 months ago in Men
Set on Edge
“In those days people will no longer say, ‘The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge .’" (Jeremiah 31:29, NIV)
By Mack D. Ames2 months ago in Men
I Knew Him for Ten Years. Then I Asked for One Tiny Favor.
I had a friend named David. I'd known him for almost ten years. Last year I helped him out with something—not huge, but not nothing either. It took a fair amount of my time. Afterwards, he was extremely grateful, said he'd absolutely take me out to dinner one of these days. I didn't think much of it. We were friends, after all. Then I hit a snag myself, and I reached out to ask him for a very small favor—truly tiny, the kind of thing he could have done with barely a lift of a finger. On the phone, there was this two-second silence. And then he started telling me how swamped he was lately, how inconvenient this would be, and all the complications that might follow if he helped me out. I hung up and just sat there. The feeling was strange. Not anger. Something cold. Something that suddenly saw clearly. I realized that for ten years, I had been the one flowing toward him, and he had never once flowed toward me. I'd simply never asked, so I'd never seen it.
By Jin2 months ago in Men
The Guy Who Stopped Treating “Let’s Grab Lunch” Like a Promise
I used to know a guy named Leo. A few years back, he was going through a pretty rough patch. Lost his job, his savings were almost gone, and his love life didn't seem to be going anywhere either — I never pressed him for details, but his whole vibe at the time was: phone battery perpetually at eight percent, life battery at maybe three.
By Jin2 months ago in Men
Cross-Cultural Business Isn't About Being Polite — It's About Being Effective
--- There's a version of cross-cultural business training that I find mostly useless. It goes something like this: don't point the soles of your feet at someone in Thailand, always present your business card with two hands in Japan, and remember that in some cultures, "yes" doesn't mean yes.
By Scott Gelbard3 months ago in Men
THE MALE EGO: THE FIRST ADDICTION
Nobody asks the question. What if the first addiction wasn’t alcohol? What if it wasn’t heroin, pornography, gambling, shopping, power, money or sex?
By THE HONED CRONE3 months ago in Men
Women Don’t Want a “Nice Guy”
Any man reading this knows the struggle of wishing he knew what women were thinking. Every woman reading this article has likely, at one point, also wished a man she liked knew what she was thinking.
By Jesse Lee3 months ago in Men