So you older guys have fun and don't think because you are older you cannot be a warrior. If you have a serious medical condition attend any male physical competition and express your warrior spirit by yelling and supporting contestants. Emotional support is important for all warriors no matter what age. That support helps all warriors both young and old alike.

Reply from:

Bill Weintraub

Re: Old guys can be warriors too

4-15-2011

I thank my friend and fellow Warrior Robert Moseley.

But Robert forgot to mention one of the most important things guys can do in their role as older or elder Warriors.

Which is:

Using the immense benefit conferred by their life experience, to mentor, guide, and be role-models for -- younger Warriors.

So -- at Sparta, for example, there was an Assembly or Ekklesia of ALL the Warriors.

And every Warrior had one vote in the Ekklesia.

But there was also a Gerousia - a Council of Elders.

Which functioned sort of like our US Senate and Supreme Court combined.

There were thirty guys in the Gerousia.

Two of them were the hereditary kings.

And they could be any age.

But the other twenty-eight were all Men aged sixty and above.

At age sixty a Man became exempt from serving in War.

But now he entered into a different competition.

Because now, whenever there was a vacancy on the Gerousia, the Warriors of the Assembly *voted* to fill it from among the elder Warriors.

And the vote was made on the basis of Virtue.

Only the most Virtuous and Valorous Warriors aged 60 or above were elected to the Council.

Xenophon, the Athenian aristocrat who was in effect adopted by the Spartans and lived among them for many years, tells us that the effect of these elections was to spur Men as they got older -- to be as Virtuous as possible.

In other words, the Spartan system was set up to encourage Virtue -- good behavior -- in both young and old.

In addition, as Xenophon says, the Elders were given the greatest responsibility of all in the society.

Because whereas the younger Men might judge athletic or choral competitions, the Elders were required to sit in judgement on cases of law -- including capital cases.

Which meant, said Xenophon, that they were judging not just bodies, but souls.

So -- at Sparta -- as in virtually all Warrior societies -- elder Warriors were respected and their counsel and judgment was valued and sought out -- by the younger.

This is something, of course, our present society, which worships youth, greed, and growth -- has completely forgotten and blanked out.

Not good.

Because there's no replacing the life experience of Elders.

Now -- let's talk about some specific ways Elder Warriors can help younger.

For example, if those Elders have spent most of their lives as gay-identified, they will have seen FIRST-HAND -- as very few young people born after 1980 will have seen or remembered -- the effects of anally-vectored disease.

Those young people need to be told about that.

They need to hear about it.

Not just read about it on the web or in a book.

But hear about it from guys who lived through it.

They need to hear about the disfigurement, the suffering, and the death -- all of which occurred on a massive scale.

They need also to hear the personal testimony of guys who were sexually active during the height of the epidemic, but who, like myself, remained free of HIV because they practiced Frot.

That's important testimony.

And only our elder Frot Warriors can provide that testimony.

In addition, young Warriors need to hear about the ways in which promiscuity destroyed relationships and lives in the so-called gay community during the seventies, eighties, nineties, and on into the present.

Similarly, if those Elder Warriors have spent most of their lives as straight-identified and in denial of their Man2Man needs and desires, as Warrior "Joe", who's now 60, has done --

he can tell younger Warriors that that denial doesn't work:

I have never been with a man. I chose to lead a normal life, to live the American dream, and to try and deny my attraction to men. I am a married dad, and enjoying a good life. But my denial has not worked of course, so now I would like to meet someone in a similar situation. I want to feel the passion two men can experience by being together.

So:

The Wisdom of Elder Warriors is essential to any Warriordom.

And it's essential to the work of the Alliance.

Once again I thank Warrior Robert Moseley.

Who's a true Warrior.

Bill Weintraub

April 15, 2011

© All material Copyright 2011 by Bill Weintraub. All rights reserved.