A Man Should Protect, Footnotes and Reflection

So.. if you follow me on twitter, I was up at ridiculous hours (like 6am), tired, thirsty, and too lazy to get out of my bed. While Tom & Jerry were playing their usual cat & mouse games I was just flooded with reflective thoughts and ideas (as I usually do) and tweeted them into my timeline. These thoughts pertained to some of the fabric of a man, as well as the best interests of people in general. Protection being the main theme.

"Protect yourself. Protect what you love. Protect your dependents. They attest to, protect, your honor."

"To protect doesn't always imply defensive action"

• One can protect a way of life's ideal simply by staying true to it.
  -You protect your marriage simply by remaining faithful and satisfying the needs of your wife. Another ex. One who lives out their spirituality's ideal in uplifting manner can combat the staining of its identity from corrupted practitioners, i.e. Regular guy vs Bishop Eddie Long
  

Having/being your own filter will make you slow to speak, and thus more aware to avoid unnecessary consequences. Protect yourself.

• The more our world becomes isolated yet connected, the less accountable people are with their restraint. Twitter is a great example of this. While it may seem without consequence to act in any manner, the habit of wanton provocation can only spread into your personal/real life lives, where there is no veiled curtain to hide behind and the "It's just Twitter" mindset will catch up to you.
  

"If a man consciously intrudes the honor of another man, no matter how subtle, he invites conflict and should be prepared to defend himself."

• So I guess if you don't understand this your first question should be "what is the honor of a man?". Ask one you know for their answer. For me, anything I have a pride for I consider my honor. My God, My Family, My woman, my lifestyle, my work, and my mind. If you choose to willingly trample upon my role as a man in any of those in disrespect, I care not for your reason and it would be foolish to think doing so is without consequence.
  -Pride is a dangerous thing and one all people struggle with (at least those that attempt to tame it) but the less vanity contained in principles of one's honor, the deeper the value he assigns to them. For me 3 of my 6 circles of honor are more vain by nature (the last 3), and that is a weakness still being worked on, so tread lightly.
  

"Control/be conscious of your impulses. The flesh very rarely pursues your best interests."

• I associate the biblical term "the flesh" with the term "impulse" in this case. I do not know about you, but most impulses I get are not good for me. Whether it's attraction to a female, potentially doing bodily harm lol, or outright dangerous, confrontational impulses.
  -At one hand be conscious of your impulses, some of them you can figure out why and guard yourself.
  -Controlling impulses are hard, but simply acting as the gatekeeper and not allowing their escape has worked best for me.
• Some would argue that when I say 'the flesh' "rarely" pursues your best interest would be best replaced with "never". I don't believe that's the case. In biblical term, simply being born (since we do so into flesh) we're screwed from the jump. I take that term to mean born to impulses as well as actual flesh and while inherently imperfect, flesh has a few attributes that we require.
  -The flesh is self healing and when I mix my two ideals of flesh, I determine that the flesh is consumed with two main things: Action on impulse and surviving (since it survives due to impulse). In most situations we want to survive, the flesh is natural at assisting this 'need'. Though there does come times when "surviving" may corrupt the spiritual criterion of a man. Forsaking the family you are supposed to protect just to "survive" (live comfortably or actually stay alive) is an example.
  

"Some feed on a display of vulnerability. Only two kinds of people will see you: Sympathizers and predators. Protect yourself vs both."

• If you are without watchers (alone) and see a defenseless and weakened animal, you will do one of two things. You will help it(some sympathizers, some predators [see a good predator]), or you will harm it more(other sympathizers and predators). In either means, you do so to satisfy your personal spiritual requirements (a sympathizer may feel guilty if they ignored, thus helps) and/or your impulses (as said before, impulses are >usually< not beneficial..see a bad sympathizer"). While sympathizers want to help you, predators see your present state as an opportunity gain from you. Whether that gain is to physically harm you or gain your dependence is up to the predator. Often times a predator will come in the form of a sympathizer. I know the next thought in your head is "what about people that don't care".. simple.. they don't see them. And there's a difference between "apathy" and not intervening. Ask me my thoughts on beggars sometime.
  --a bad sympathizer... this person may impulsively take pity on your situation and want to "help" you, however you take this pity as insult and thus it does not help you, the sympathizer extending his hand satisfies their illusions of being a good person [this doesn't help them] when in fact they trampled upon your honor to your sense of self, no one benefited)
  --a good predator... usually love stories involve a good predator, they see you when you're down, get close to you, fall for you, all the while building you back up, share aspects of their lives, you establish a dependence on them (ex. their presence make you happy), you two fall in love, get married and make happy babies.
• All that to say, that we all have a mix of both, in their positive and negative lights. This is also the reason you should protect yourself from both because it's simply hard to read the intentions of others at first.
  

"Protect your dependents. Life is about service and when choosing lives to be responsible for their welfare, you elect them your judges."

• This is pretty simple, if you choose to be responsible for the welfare of others, forcing their dependence on you (ex. having kids) gives them a divine right to judge you. Should God read back to you your doings, the largest print in your book will be your service to those who needed you, and ESPECIALLY those you chose to need you (because those things are most like God).
  

And lastly "Protect what you love. It will be your strongest testimony before God."

• The former point supports this one as well.

Hope you enjoyed yet another of mindspills. Later

-Nem