i was 13 when i experienced my first 'rite of passage' so to speak. it was when i joined the boy scouts. the 'rite of passage' was really a couple of nights of mental and physical 'torture' during our first camping trip for the year. this included midnight walks in dark, supposedly haunted sections of the camping ground and the eating of a nasty concoction of junk including toothpaste, expired sardines, large dollops of chilly among others, that was called 'the toast'. (in later years when i was responsible for 'the toast' i included in my recipe several dead lizards and a few handfulls of grass plucked from the ground where the toast was being cooked!)
throughout my years in school, there were several other 'rites of passage' and some were pretty painful experiences (painful physically!). the "indian run", for example, is when you get blindfolded, in the dead of a cold night, dressed in nothing more than a pair of swimming trunks, and you run between two rows of seniors, each holding a rolled up newspaper, and as you run, you get whacked! or the dripping of hot wax from candles onto bare skin (and i mean ALL OVER); or kneeling down and being slapped on the shoulder blades from behind by a senior known as 'the stadium' (because he is as big as one!).
some call it ragging. and some called it orientation. some called it torture. but whatever you call it i would say i'm thankful for the experiences. i'd like to think that enduring these things had a hand in giving me some balls.
i was talking with someone today about men and how many men don't have the balls to deal with life issues and opt to take the easy way out often when faced with trying times. and i don't mean agonizing over what colour to paint your condominium after you purchased it. i mean real tough, destiny-changing decisions like cancelling an engagement because you don't really love her, or supporting the sweet young thing you knocked up on the side, or leaving your wife because you don't love her anymore... those kinds of situations. i have had a taste earlier on in my life and i know how sickening it can be to be faced with such decisions.
i hope that when the time comes (IF the time comes) when i need to make a though decision like that, that i will have the balls to take the bull by its horn and do what needs to be done.
it can be tough being an unker!