Wild Stories, Mens Journal

I remember most of these excellent stories (having a Mens Journal subscription during the late to early 2000s, under the chapter sub-headings of: The Adventures; The Sporting Life; Men’s Lives; and The Reporting. This coincides with how diverse, compelling, and authentically male fix the feature stories are. They’re long and ambitious, make you long for adventure, make you shake your head at the bravery of some, make you laugh at the spirit of living and of life itself. It’s a portal into examples of what it means to be a man/men. And the stories hit all corners of the globe. Pieces especially poignant to me were: Alone – going out alone in the wild to test yourself and make meaning of your life and the self.. the act of backcountry trekking and climbing in rough territory revalues the currency of distance… the mile cheapened by the car and rendered almost worthless by the plane that travels over the very land you seek to find. The Last Trip – on the life of Ned Gillette and the incident that took his life when he was in the backcountry of Pakistan with his wife, Susie Patterson.  The story of Gus Waterman – who after living a full life walked off to summit his last peak in the White Mountains and lay down and died. A story on the firefighters during 9/11; the Everest disaster of 1996; and ‘The Survivors’ piece by Hampton Sides – which should be required reading for all Americans who may or may not have forgotten the horror our country went through on that day, 9/11… especially for those who weren’t born yet or didn’t experience that time. It’ll make you thankful.. it’ll make you angry... it’ll make you want to hug a loved one.