The Ride of My Life – By Caleb Roloson
As a rule of thumb I always want to pull people into what I am excited about. Ok, maybe it is more of a habit, but when I am excited I want others to be all jazzed up as well. I love it when they are. I hope you see my excitement through this blog from time to time as well as enjoy when I bring others into it who are all excited as well.
So who’s ride is it?
The Ride of My Life was written by my brother-in-law, describing the day that, when he looks back, marks the day that he became a man. This is significant for 2 reasons.
- He was thrown into it by necessity. His father is a great dad, I am consistently learning from my father-in-law in all areas of life. The point is though that this was not a ceremony. They did not have a chance for it. The day came when he did not have the choice and needed to become a man right away. He stepped up and it now marks the day that he looks back at as the day he became a man.
- He is in my Community of Men. Caleb is one of the guys that I asked to sign the Enlistment of Service for my son. I hope to share this story with my son as he grows up. I want him to know this story when he looks at his uncle and sometime be able to sit in the woods with him on a trip and hear it straight from his Uncle Caleb. That would be so cool.
Click on Image to Download.
A few short pages to read.
So here is the file you can read. Just click on the image to download the document. Enjoy reading and be sure to share it and send people back this way. You can also click here to download the story.
When did you become a Man?
So as this whole thing grows I would love to have many more stories. I am looking for any other men who are willing to share their story. All you need to do is explain the event or events that come to mind when you answer the question, When did you become a Man? Your story may have been a ceremony or it may have been a situation like Caleb’s, but either way I would love for you to share it.
I will put it into a similar file as Caleb’s story with its own graphic and make sure you get a copy as well as share it with everyone else through my site.
Let me know in the comments if you are interested. Questions are welcome and I would love to hear from as many people as possible.
deliberatemen.com 
The “man” can not only ride a mtn bike, but he can write! For me, Calebs manhood started on an earlier day in SA. We were staying in a mtn chalet on Die Kroon Farm our first week there. I had made the mistake of reading the local newspaper which described a farm attack (not uncommon in SA) where an 80+ year old man was tied with barbed wire, shot in the thighs and left to watch himself bleed to death. The culprits took R200 (like 20 bucks) and a twenty two caliber rifle and a radio. The attack occurred just up the road from where we were staying.
I wanted to go up the 7000′ Bokkies Berg mtn. so I brought Caleb outside and gave him an antique, six inch blade hunting knife and these instructions; your only one man, if God asks you to defend your mom and 3 sisters, get them up in the loft of the Chalet where you can defend the only access up at the ladder stairs. Caleb, they can take anything (we had twelve suitcases worth of stuff when we arrived) but they are not going to touch us. We, you will fight till you have no more fight. I’ll be watching from the mountain.
As I walked briskly up the mountain, looking back occasionally I felt like I might have made a mistake coming to the highest rape statistic found anywhere in the world. I had brought my family to a farm in SA, the very target of unspeakable crimes in order to share Christ with rural SA youth while developing an adventure camp. What was I thinking?
I felt like I had prematurely thrusted my only son into a responsibility that only a man should have to process or defend and had consequently robbed him of his remaining boyhood.
When I returned to the chalet and Caleb came out and asked how the mountain hike was, I realized I had brought to the African grassland a teen boy who now had to face the riggers (at times) of being a man. Caleb was up to the task. A father could not have been then, or now as proud as I am of my son and the man he has become.
So Caleb was already a man the night I asked him to retrieve cows from thieves in my book, he had already been asked to defend his family and was up to the task.
Great job son, thanks Tim for the post.
Thanks Scott. I see what your saying. His decision to act like a man and be a man came far before that day he wrote about. I remember hearing about this story in a number of other conversations with you and caleb. I am grateful for your willingness to defend the women in the family, of course one is now my wife so I am biased. Thanks for sharing.
I love you guys.
Nice blog post