When I say “men” I mean to describe “members of the human species, male, female and children” according to the dictionary. Using the plural form of the word denoting our species is easier than saying: “members of the human species, male, female and children.” It’s definitely easier than saying: members of the human race male, female, and children, and LGBQb+! But, to be clear, any member of our species is equally entitled to enjoy the distinction to which the title alludes.

A monster is a thing of danger and confusion, a creature whose behavior is difficult to predict and therefore capable of wreaking havoc. It indiscriminately devours and destroys. Children view as monsters as anything causing fear. The darkness, the unknown, human beings all can be scary. I believe it may be the fear that makes us so, and the deeply rooted need to ‘belong.’

The paths should be clear enough as I often allude to them: the darkness is scary so we pursue light. Unknown is scary so we pursue knowledge. Human beings who live in the unknown and in the dark can be scary, so we try to understand how it is that human beings historically make sense of their world through myths, enlightenment, religion, and science.

Such sources serve as guideposts to our collective reality. The only other choice is remaining in the fantasy of our own making, where we alone are ‘gods’ – where whatever we say is right and good IS SO, and whatever we do is OK… because we make the rules and who can say otherwise??

Men with clever wives know by now that ‘they can do whatever they want and who can say otherwise??‘ is inherently false. That is why the men are still alive and haven’t perished in some delusional pursuit of happiness after drinking multiple Red Bulls.

I believe the realm of men may be to build things, and the realm of women is to build better men, with the end object of building a better world together. Clearly, they can’t do it without us.

I heard a kind mannered man say that “Atheism is a form of insanity.” It seemed rather harsh and unforgiving at the time. But, he meant out of love to allude to the fact that- if human beings have no other guide in life but our own minds and our own self-interest- we can commit the most horrendous acts and lie to ourselves to hide the reality of it.

In the case of leaders, they can continually abuse power, wage wars, and commit genocide (until the people rise up and put them in jail which serves as a kind of checking mechanism for the egregious abuse of power.)

Our Founding Fathers who wrote the Constitution understood that men were capable of such abuse of power, which is why they put limitations on how much power a leader may possess. They planned to distribute power so that no one may act too rogue of the collective will or perceived ‘good’ of humanity of which each person had a say.

The problem is human beings possessed with too much power become unmanageable and monster-like. So, the place of admitting our limitations is a good place to start. Recognizing our failures past, present, personal, and collective, may help restore our world into something less chaotic, less monster-like.

Recognizing our potential to abuse of power, we may find ourselves unplugged and immune from the world’s madness. And, we may find a safe harbor for our souls.