Dear Men,

I have been inspired by Tad Hargrave’s very valuable series of open letters to white men that invite those of us in that group to wake up to our privilege. It is a powerful challenge.

I want to address men. Period. And my wake up call is to the violence we perpetrate the world over and the capacity for love that is huge and untapped.

Police killings, hate crimes, terrorist attacks, gang violence, sexual violence, as well as the systemic violation of the Earth and her fragile environment… all acts perpetrated in vast majority by men.

What the hell is wrong with masculinity the world over? Across race and religion and every other identifiable line it is men who are behind the violence. It has been the same for centuries.

So, men, I want to ask us what we are doing about it. How are we taking responsibility for living into a masculinity of love and not violence?The temptation is to make this an outside project, isn’t it? We could all get together with our big brains and think about a new politics or economy or educational system. We are always ready, it seems, to go do battle with the external source of chaos, seeking to bring order to the world around us. But before we do that there is a far greater inner battle to wage. We must get back in touch with our heart.

The enemy, men, is inside the gates. The unconsciousness that drives us into the world to seek revenge, to dominate, to conquer, to control, is the darkness that keeps us from connecting to our own hearts. The inner battle is far, far, more difficult than any external revolution, which is why most of us never try. Instead, we dismiss the inner realm as fiction or irrelevant, like the fairy tales in which the people no longer believe in dragons.

There are dragons. We have just lost the courage to face them. But without us they are destroying the world and will one day come for you and for me if they haven’t already.

So, men, I want to invite us to courage once again. Courage to go inside and face the terror that lives inside of us. Courage to shake off the enchantment of professional sports and economic success and sexual addiction and a million other ways the adversary keeps us distracted.

We need each other to do this. We need to once again become a brotherhood of warriors ready to stand for each other when the fight is the fiercest. We need to meet again in circles of men for whom the inner battle is the rallying cry. We need to circle and sound the trumpet because our Mother the Earth needs us now. Our sisters, the women of the world, need us now to hold space for them to bring their healing magic. Our children need us to live our mission so that they might live in peace.

There is no external peace for us, men. Not when violence rages all around. There is only the inner peace, the peace that passes understanding, of when we feel truly alive in the face of the internal terror that seeks to occupy our hearts and send us tormented into the world to seek relief.

I invite you to reach out today men. Reach out and declare yourself for the revolution of the heart. Email, call, message, comment, like, anything. Reach out to a brother. Share this post. Message me even if you don’t know me. Anything that signals to yourself that you are ready to live for something different than the world as it appears right now.

And get ready. Notice what happens inside of you. Start preparing yourself. Because the enemy will launch its attack.

“This is pointless.”
“Inner work is not going to change the world.”
“Not all men are violent.”
“I’m already doing my part.”
“I don’t like militaristic metaphors.”
“Who me? I’m one of the good guys.”

That’s the serpent talking, fellows. This is way bigger than any of us individually. We are the front edge of the train with hundreds of generations of inertia behind us. We are shifting the course of masculinity for hundreds of our ancestors. So don’t waste a second feeling guilty or superior. That is not the point. There is work to do so let’s do it.

Reach out. Make contact with another man. Tell him you want another world and are willing to go inside to do it.

With respect,

Ernest