It's Not Your Fault That You're Broken

Men, you'll want to read this.

The Inner Whisper That Was Silenced

As a child, I was an adventurer. I had a bit of a rebellious spirit. I wasn't a troublemaker by any means, but I was different. I dyed my hair wild colors, wore strange clothes, hitchhiked across the prairies, then later across North America, and constantly found myself doing things that didn't fit the norm. It wasn't that I intentionally sought to push the boundaries of what was considered normal, I just followed my instincts, chased curiosity, and the result was that I lived just slightly outside the mold.

But even then, I tempered myself.

Because my path looked different from others', I always had an underlying belief that my instincts were wrong. That my hunger for adventure and self-discovery, however insatiable, was not to be trusted. I was shown, through expectations and social cues, that this path I was following was at the expense of success. Everything around me indicated that veering off the traditional path was abandoning the "right way."

And so, I didn't stray too far.

While I always sought to bring my own unique spirit to everything I did, I still pursued the trappings of success. I became some version of what the world wanted me to be. I grudgingly checked the boxes. But all along the way, no matter how successful I was in the process, there was still a silent nagging within me—the whisper that had been left unembraced within me all along.

"If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you."— Gospel of Thomas (cited by Carl Jung)

The Moment We Ignore the Call

There is a moment—a specific point in time—when we silence that whisper. When we feel the call to adventure deep within us but choose to ignore it. And it is in that moment that we become divided against ourselves.

From that point forward, we carry a quiet but undeniable pain. A fracture that lingers beneath the surface of our lives. We move forward, building careers, families, responsibilities—important things, meaningful things. But beneath it all, something is missing.

Because without initiation, without first answering the call and walking the path to find ourselves, all of these things remain, to varying degrees, empty. Success without purpose. Responsibility without fulfillment. Love without depth.

The call to adventure was never meant to be ignored. It is the path to wholeness. It is what allows us to return—to bring back wisdom, strength, and purpose. But when we deny the call, we walk through life absent of purpose, and it is this absence that leaves men feeling broken.

"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."— Oscar Wilde

The Divide We See in the World is a Reflection of the Divide Within

It is easy to look around and see a world divided. Left vs. right. Nation vs. nation. Men vs. women. Jews vs. Palestinians. The vaccinated vs. the unvaccinated. Everywhere, people are picking sides, convinced that some are right and others are wrong.

But the truth is, this division is not just political, ideological, or social. It is personal.

The world is a mirror. The chaos we see outside of us is a direct reflection of the fracture within us. We are not just living in a divided world—we are living as divided men.

And one of the greatest ironies of our time is how masculinity itself has become a source of conflict. We are told that masculinity is toxic. That men must change, suppress, or abandon what is natural to them. But the truth is, it is not masculinity that is causing harm—it is the absence of it.

The absence of true masculine initiation—so they can pair their instincts with time-honored virtues and principles—is one of the greatest tragedies of our era.

As a result, men are not being given a model of who they are meant to be—they are only being told what they must not be. And so, they remain lost, disconnected from their strength, divided against themselves.

True masculinity does not destroy. It grounds. It protects. It serves. It stands strong. The world does not suffer from too much masculinity—it suffers from too little of it. From men who have been stripped of their sovereignty.

A nation divided against itself cannot stand. Neither can a man.

"The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek."— Joseph Campbell

The Way Back to Wholeness

The more division we see in the world, the more we are distracted from the truth.

All of these divisions—every war, every cultural battle, every ideological conflict—are simply the external evidence of people who have become divided against themselves. Of men who never underwent true initiation. Of men who, despite living up to what society "expects" of them, feel lost, unfulfilled, and broken.

The whisper that once called to us—the one we ignored, the one that created this fracture within us—is not gone. It is still calling.

That voice is the path back. It is the initiation we never had. It is the journey that every hero in every myth has walked before us.

And we can still walk it.

We can still reclaim what was lost. We can sit with our pain and clear it out. And when we do—when we finally undergo the initiation that has existed in every culture throughout history—we will emerge whole.

"The only way to deal with this life meaningfully is to find the path that is yours alone."— Carl Jung

Only then, with clarity, do we receive our true purpose.

Only then do we begin to experience ourselves and the world around us as whole.

Only then do we truly begin to live.

The call has been made. The only question is, will you answer?