THE GOOD MEN PROJECT: 21ST-CENTURY MASCULINITY

You can tough it out, but the body keeps the score through the effects of cortisol. Kate Bartolotta offers several drug free alternatives for chronic pain management.

Sean Davis remembers the fallen soldiers he served with and looks ahead to new challenges.

Today I sit with my ruck packed at my feet and I’m ready to be deployed to Oklahoma with Team Rubicon to help during the cleanup of another natural disaster. Last weekend I drove out to the high desert with friends to help train the Oregon National Guard. We ran around the juniper and lava rock hilltops firing blanks at our troops so they can react to situations they may encounter during their deployment to Afghanistan planned for next year. I’m still using what I learned during my military career and I’m trying to make the world a better place. The years I spent in uniform is just a series of good and bad memories and today is a day to remember.

Memorial Day was originally Decoration Day, created to honor the soldiers who died in the American Civil War. People on both sides of the war went to cemeteries and decorated the soldiers graves. In the early 20th Century Decoration Day slowly changed into Memorial Day but was still only celebrated mostly in a smattering cemeteries in the South. The holiday really became a day of reflection and remembrance after World War II, but it didn’t become an official federal holiday until 1967 and it didn’t become an observable Monday holiday until the Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1971. Today, most think of it as the unofficial start of summer and a three-day weekend. I believe that it’s because of the wars we’re fighting now, but in the last couple years I’ve seen people give the holiday a bit more thought and reverence.

So let’s remember the men we lost in service of our country. I knew five personally:

A day in the life of Andy Behrman, obsessive-compulsive.

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Los Angeles, California. It’s another sunny day in the suburbs. But I’m trapped in my house bleaching the tub, toilet and tile floor in the bathroom.

I’m scrubbing like a goddamn madman until everything is sparkling white. Killing all of the bacteria in the small six foot by six foot room. I love killing germs. I guess you could say it’s a hobby. A hobby that has become an obsession.

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