Part of being a man is knowing, not only what you like to eat and drink, but being able to identify quality. Developing your tastes is a process and sometimes age does make a difference. Good food and "flavored" food aren't often the same thing. Similarly, when it comes to drink, if it tastes accessible it probably isn't cultivated for a discerning palate. Does that mean, if you hate the taste of scotch that you can't be a man? Well, no. You should learn to like the taste of whiskey, let's get that out of the way right now, but if you don't, that's not the end of the world. Be aware that part of the journey of becoming a man is about opening your mind to new experiences and even retrying failed ones. For example, if you've tried scotch once and determined that you don't like it, you're wrong. There are more than 90 distilleries producing single-malt scotch whiskey right now. That means that there are thousands of variants of single-malt scotch for you to try. That's just one small group in the even broader category of whiskey.
Simply put, you cannot determine your tastes so absolutely with such a limited sampling. There are plenty of whiskeys that I cannot stand to imbibe. But there are many that I adore. If it sounds like a lot of trial and error is in store, you're correct. Don't panic, we'll get there together. We're men.
Activities could have been a category entirely under choice, but I think the experience plays enough of a role that it is a blended attribute. Activities cover a wide range, but let's give two examples right out of the gate: sport and cooking. Conflicted? Hardly. One is a requirement for being a man and the other is optional, or even unnecessary. I'll bet you just guessed wrong.
Sport is a reasonable distraction for men and women to enjoy in moderation, but for many "guys" it is an all-consuming activity that threatens to define every aspect of their lives from reading to attire to food and drink. Sport should be limited in its intake and fanaticism avoided at all costs. It's valuable to have a working knowledge of most sports, and be able to play, but being a jock was only helpful in high school and doesn't make you a man anymore.
Cooking, on the other hand, is essential to survival. There's an outdated social expectation that states the role of a man is to be waited upon by a women; they cook and we consume. Well, if you've been raised with that belief and still aspire to it now, you're in big trouble. Again, we can fix this. Being able to cook, and I mean actually prepare food from scratch, is a required skill for any real man. If you're a bachelor and you're surviving off of microwaved dinners, that's not actually living. You're squandering the single man's dream. Stop! Learn to cook! We'll work on this.
Those are the basics. We'll be exploring more of this as time goes on. This blog is open-ended and I have no idea when this guide, as it were, will be complete. Let's begin!
