Strength and Honour

So I own very few DVD’s as there are not that many movies that I have a great desire to see more than once, one that I do own is Gladiator. In the event that you don’t know the film it is the story of a Roman General who falls from grace, endures and then rises to triumph again. Part of the reason I bought the DVD is that there is an opening battle scene that sounds particularly good on a surround sound system where you can hear the arches fire the arrows over your head and pots of flaming oil likewise catapulted over you to crash into the trees with a very satisfying explosion.


Prior to the commencement of the battle we find our General delivering the pre match pep talk which is suitably stirring before they all ride off to kill some Germanic tribe. At the end of his speech he concludes with a salute which includes the phrase “Strength and Honour” to which his troops all respond likewise “Strength and Honour” The historic accuracy of this particular phrase seems to be doubtful but it has returned to my memory while I was turning over the issue of what it means to be a man in today’s society, a topic I alluded to in my last post.

I had started with the idea of a sort of bullet list of things a man might ideally be and first on that list was Strength as it is an obvious differentiator between the sexes. In this context I am talking about physical strength and while I accept there are wide range of male and female examples, as a statement of averages men in general have the capacity to lift heavier weights etc than women. They also have greater genetic capacity in this arena, you only need to look at the extremes of body building to see that women never reach the gigantic size of some of the steroid enhanced males in this activitiy.

So this initially physical attribute has morphed into some of the other things we like our men to be, they should be able to protect their loved ones. They should be “handy” with tools etc, which I believe to be a manifestation of the heavy lifting sometimes associated with this type of task. They should be less emotional at times of crisis, which is not to say that men don’t have emotions or shouldn’t share but when the ship is sinking we admire those that can put aside the immediate concerns of fear etc and act for the good of the group. Women do this too especially in relation to their children but we still operate on the “women and children to the life rafts first” system. Even some of the negative things that men get up to like drinking too much with their mates is something to do with being the strongest and therefore last man standing. So a lot of being a man is derived from being strong one way and another.

Now a muscle bound man who simply knows how to be “strong” is to be avoided as their solution to all problems will probably be from the school of “hit it harder”. A man simply with strength is probably a danger to themselves and almost certainly to others. We need a modifier of that strength and it comes in the second part of our pseudo roman saying, Honour.

To act with honour, which implies “doing ones duty”, “a gentleman never tells”, “to protect my good name”, “a man’s word is his bond” and other clichés in both words and actions are bound up in the concept of Honour and acting with honour. We respect and admire people who can act with integrity and while this is not a trait reserved for men it is perhaps even more important to have when you are cast into the role of acting with strength. It is also the part that allows men the freedom to be caring and nurturing and not devoid of feelings to be giving and appreciative of the world. To honour learning etc is mans route to the intellectual to balance the physical.

So to be a man is “strength and honour” however it troubles me to have to base my foundation of manliness on a made up pseudo roman quote, but being fortunate to have been born in Aotearoa I don’t have to I have the word Mana to turn to and guide my quest for manliness. Mana in my mind encompases strength and honour and more. So to act in a way that enhances my Mana this, I think, is what it is to be a man today as it was yesterday and as it will be tomorrow.