Tl;Dr – Leadership matters most during an emergency. Don’t let the ‘Politically correct’ distract you from being ready and stepping up.

Storms have a way of separating the trivial from the critical. In my 41 years on this planet many storms (both literal and figurative) blew through my life. This isn’t about the “I got a flat tire on the way home” type of issue, I mean the we are going to lose our house or %relative% just got cancer types of storms.

10 Years ago I attended my daughter’s softball game. As we left a player from another team was visibly distraught to the point of stumbling as she tried to make her way across the field to the parking lot. Her dad brushed it off; apparently she was ‘beamed’ with a pitch and it caught her in the head. A parent (Bob) from my team was the chief of police for a nearby city. He immediately recognized the signs of concussion and took charge. He laser-focused on her health. He sat her down, calmly assessed the situation, calmly instructed me to call 911, and then returned attention to her by explaining what would happen and that things were under control. For the 1st couple seconds the dad was objecting, and Bob adeptly maneuvered so that her dad appeared to be talking to himself; he immediately became irrelevant.

Five years ago my wife and I purchased raw land in a rural area. We took a morning to drive out to it and encountered road conditions which trapped us. The cliff-facing road through a mountain pass had cycles of freezing and thawing resulting that morning in a stretch which was wet ice once we turned a bend facing the sun. It was bad; really bad. We had no cell phone reception, no one knew we were back there, and the SUV was completely immobile. As I stepped out of the car my feet flailed away from the lack of traction. Wife was on the verge of a nuclear meltdown. Using my hands, sticks, some gravel dug out from the road shoulder, and a tremendous amount of pushing and coordination, we got the car turned around and back to better road. To this day my wife gets cold shivers when we drive that section of the road.

We are weathering a gale-force storm in our life right now. It is hitting us from four different directions. The stress of everything has me in a state of perpetual nausea. As hard as I try to be the rock, my wife can see cracks forming in my armor. Like Bob, and like the time on that mountain pass, an unspoken need pervades the air - We MUST continue to navigate this ship through the turbulence. There is no other option; stay the course and navigate our ship through hell or high water.

This is not to say that the 1st mate can relax in the galley reading her Redbook munching on Bon Bons. She sees where my mental energy is focused and knows that other more trivial attentions will suffer. With unspoken words, my lesser responsibilities shifted to her and now she is operating in a mode which frees me up for the highest priority focus.

Three takeaways –

  1. Be prepared. Storms blow through all our lives; no exception. When the time comes for you as a man, will you have the skills, discipline, confidence, and stoicism to do what needs to be done? Will you be ready to step up and command the respect of those around you?

  2. Nothing strips away politically correct bullshit like a serious crisis. Not one of those SJWs, ‘empowered women’, or bitchy wives will take the lead. Furthermore, NOT ONE of them will question your leadership; they will humbly seek refuge on the ship you command.

  3. <the most important> - Will the woman in your life step up to the role of 1st mate? Someone needs to batten down the hatches and keep the ship sea-worthy while you are at the helm. If she isn’t up to the task then you don’t want her mothering your children, involved with your finances, or frankly in your life at all.

Edit 1 >> This came across my phone a few minutes ago. Before my TRP transformation I would NEVER get appreciation like this. So, to all of the SJWs and feminists who think we abuse women, take a good look.