Guy Fun

"The recipe for fun is pretty simple raising boys: Add to any activity an element of danger, stir in a little exploration, add a dash of destruction, and you've got yourself a winner."
-John Eldridge

I can believe this. I can FIRMLY believe this. I have seen evidence of this on nearly every adventure with the guys, and this line just explains it to my girl-brain: "Oh, THAT'S what they're doing."

Ethan and I were talking about this the other day. We were at the mall, because neither of us really 'get' the mall, but I was starved for sunlight and it was too cold to walk and talk outside. By definition, if you say, "it's a guy thing," you're referring to anything where all the guys say, "Cool!" and all the girls say, "Why?!"

For example, last summer, my dear friend and manager (for lack of a better term) was making plans to build a trebuchet at Camp.

Immediately,
Guys: Cool!
Girls: Why?!

Being female, I can see the logic on the latter. Camp is about the kids. You couldn't possibly keep the kids off the thing. Camp only owns property on one side of the river. Presumably, if you have this thing AT Camp, the already-cranky neighbors on the OTHER side of the river are going to assume that it will at some point be used against them. There's limited open horizontal space at Camp - if you WERE to build such thing, the only stable place for it is in the middle of the soccer field.

But, after being convinced of the opening statement here, and hanging out with the guys, I can see the logic supporting having a siege engine at Camp. Mainly, that there isn't one there yet.

This, of course, is not to suggest that if there were a trebuchet at Camp, the guys would scrap these plans. Never. Rather, the plans would immediately be to improve the trebuchet, to hurl new and larger objects with it, to increase its accuracy, and most importantly, to at some point build a second one, so that battles might be had. At some point, this would be so out of control that we would be changing our name to Camp Trebuchet*.

Guys: "Duh."
Girls: "What??"

*I actually kind of like the ring this has to it, but I can't quite see parents being keen on sending their offspring to such a place. Or, at least, I can't see mothers sending their offspring to such a place. Fathers would be trying to figure out how they could sign up as campers.

This is because, no matter how old a guy gets, some part of him will always be fifteen. And I think that there's been some unnecessary bashing of that quality. I can't precisely pin down what it is, but there seems to be something truly worthwhile about that explorative spirit that has far greater priorities than self-preservation.

Yes, entertainment is also a result, but that might be more of a byproduct than anything else.