[X&Y] Lay Down The Law And Break It
Published: Sun, 09/24/17
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LAY DOWN THE LAW AND BREAK IT
As cool as the title of this newsletter is, I can’t take credit for it.
It’s actually a somewhat obscure lyric from a Steely Dan song
way back in the ‘70s.
Nevertheless, if you’re like me, it really captures your
imagination and doesn’t let go. It just gets right to the heart
of what we as men yearn for, deep down.
It’s about making our own rules…which in turn can be subject
to change at any time, because we feel like it.
Now, if you’re a man of character who has a cornerstone
belief system that involves self-respect, treating women right
and leaving the world a better place than you found it, you don’t
see such a concept as negative or morally bereft.
To you, it represents FREEDOM. Not simply freedom of
thought and action, but freedom of DESTINY and PURPOSE
also.
Nowadays, however, most of us find ourselves by default living
in a world where someone else “laid down the law” in our lives,
and we’ve simply followed it.
Tragically, even those who believe in a Higher Power are often
no exception. They’re following someone else’s rules like sheep
instead of following their conscience.
As you may know, we “worldschool” our children. Their field
trips are to other continents, and they contend the national BMX
racing circuit without a hall pass. And for the record, both of
them are way ahead of their grade level in their studies.
They’re happy kids who lead quite fulfilling lives, and we as
parents are similarly happy and fulfilled. It’s a perpetually
amazing and effective adventure in learning for all of us.
Not long ago I met someone who said he disagreed with
homeschooling in general.
He explained, “I don’t know. Kids need to learn a routine in life
of waking up in the morning from Monday through Friday,
following instructions and working hard. That will better prepare
them for having a job someday.”
Exactly.
It’s a training program for following the “law” and conforming to it.
Back in the early 1990s I shocked my family and friends by
leaving mid-Atlantic suburbia behind and moving to Yuma, AZ.
Literally everyone thought I had lost my mind.
But I count those years spent in the “Wild, Wild West” as among
the best of my life. My friends and I felt like we were in a Sam
Peckinpah movie, except we were riding sportbike motorcycles
through the desert instead of horses.
I wasn’t “supposed” to be doing that. I was supposed to be
climbing a corporate ladder somewhere.
And make no mistake, at some point I indeed went into the
business world, working for a Big Corporation.
That’s cool. It was my choice. I experienced that lifestyle.
But it wasn’t long before I felt a yearning desire to “break” that
“law” and “lay down” a different one.
Today, here I am…in the Santone region of the “Wild West”, still
living my purpose by my own design. Not someone else’s purpose.
For the record, everyone I knew thought I was stark, raving nuts
this time around also.
Well, everyone except Emily. She thought it was absolutely great
that I had a purpose and ambition to change the world. She was
wildly attracted to that and still loves me for it.
Interestingly enough, I was never a fan of Western movies until
after I lived in Yuma. To me they were nothing but boring, slow-
paced dialogue punctuated by all-too-occasional action.
But nowadays I love them. I mean, I freaking LOVE ‘em. I find
myself fascinated, if not mesmerized.
There’s no question that Yuma in 1892 was far rougher around
the edges than it was by 1992.
So I wonder, had I lived back in the 1800s, would I have had the
sheer balls to leave the mid-Atlantic and seek my fortune in the
“Wild, Wild West”?
God, I hope so.
Those guys must have felt even more Invincible then. “Laying
down the law and breaking it” wasn’t just a slogan, it was a way
of life.
That leads to the ultimate question: Where and when did
everything change?
Or has it, necessarily…regardless of what the “toxic masculinity”
media would have us believe?
What if you could be a bold, confident, irresistibly influential and
even dominant man…only perhaps without getting shot at quite
as often as Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday?
Invincible drops on Tuesday, September 26th at 5:00pm EDT.
Be Good,
Scot McKay
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