I’m sitting on my back porch right now, just hanging out and really enjoying the warm weather. It’s that awesome time of day where the sun is going down and the temperature is just right. The only thing not so awesome about it is the traffic going by no less than 50 feet from where I’m sitting. It’s not too bad though if you close your eyes and just pretend it’s the ocean. It’s not the most convincing illusion, but it will have to do for now.

I wanted to come out on the back porch tonight and spend some time because I spent most of last year griping about how cold it was and how much I hated winter time, and I feel like I owe it to nature to spend more time out here. I also got inspired to sit out back when I read an article today about brotherhood. I’ve started keeping up with a blog called “The Art of Manliness” and it’s done a lot to kind of point me in the right direction in a lot of different ways. The whole premise of the thing is that men aren’t men anymore. We seem to stay in a state of continuous adolescence and it’s doing us no good in the long run. Gone are the days of guys at the age of 24 slapping on a suit and starting to take care of a family. We’re lucky to be grunting at each other by that time. Most of us make our way through college and still have no idea what to do with ourselves. There’s also a loss of the “gentleman” factor. Many guys are glorified for how many women they’ve slept with or how often they go out and party. That just shouldn’t be the case. Dudes should just be proud to find one awesome girl and treat her like she is their universe.

Anyway, I got off on a tangent there. The big thing today was an article about how a man needs a “brotherhood.” We need a group of guys to hang out with who can teach us to be better men for each other. A bond between guys is a really awesome thing, because it tends to bring out this undying loyalty to friends that we often lack in our casual acquaintances we have with each other. It made me think a lot about the bond that Dave, Lando, and I share. It’s something that I’ve been unable to replace since moving to NC. I immediately thought of how we set aside one night every week to get together and porch. I realize how much I miss those times when I sit around and think about it. I may be well on my way to forming a pretty awesome “brotherhood,” but I’m not quite there yet. There are a few guys who might be willing to come hang out with me once a week, but we’re also so spread apart geographically. I’d be down for hanging with them though. We’ll have to see how this goes.

The article was really cool and I highly recommend you check out The Art of Manliness and see what you can learn from it. They have some really awesome stuff going on there. Well, back to coffee drinking and porch sitting!