[January 27, 2022] If you’re a guy, you’ve heard this before. One of your good buddies is about to do something “exciting” and probably very stupid. The first time I remember it being said was by my childhood friend, Wilson. “Hey, watch this!” as he jumped about 20 feet off an old trestle railroad bridge. We were about eight years old.
As I dropped a firecracker into a beer bottle, prepared to throw it as hard as I could, I yelled to my brother, “Hey, watch this!” We say, “boys will be boys,” regardless of age, boys tend to do stupid things more often than girls or older men. Perhaps that is why the Darwin Award (given to folks who remove themselves from the gene pool) is given more often to young men. There is some entertainment value in hearing stories about such people.
Alcohol is a common ingredient. Movies are even made about it. One of my favorites is the Cheech & Chong: Hey Watch This (2010) film. Full of laughs, lovable characters (oh, yeah), outrageous jokes, and guys doing stupid things that make you laugh. We all know that doing stupid things can led to some pretty horrific results. It’s all about risk, my neighbor said one day as we swapped Darwin Award stories.
My friend Wilson landed in the river below and promptly broke his right arm. He barely escaped drowning and since he was right-handed, he had to learn to write with his left. To this day, his penmanship is horrible. But we still laugh about the whole affair and, I guess, that is why we are guys. Our wives had another viewpoint, less funny.
I figure we can find entertainment that is less dangerous, but doing something stupid really does give us a thrill. Fortunately, I’m still alive, surviving my childhood only by blind luck. I’ve got the scars to prove it and so does Wilson.
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Please read my new book, “Our Longest Year in Iraq,” at Amazon (link here).
I laughed at this blog post. Reminds me of my brother and I.
Charming. Thanks Gen. Satterfield for a look inside the head of dumb young boys and stupid men who should know better. Give ’em the Darwin Award.
Sounds like me when I was a kid. Broke two arms, more than 40 stitches, displaced knee cap, crushed fingers, etc. Just boys being boys.
Yeah, like we all think about as young boys and sometimes as stupid young adults.
I’m drawn to hillbilly videos of them doing risky stunts. Is that being a real man? Some of them are surely more manly than the dweebs I see at work daily, that’s for sure. I like the videos. They make me laugh at some morbid way. Thank you Gen. Satterfield for this article. I forwarded it to my crazy cousin in Montana.
👍
Sounds like my brother who also decided one day to jump off a small bridge and broke his ankle. He still limps and tells everyone now that it’s an old war injury. Stupid kid.
Mine too, mostly my brother was an idiot. Glad he survived to now! 😃😃😃😃😃
Extreme sports would seem to fall into this category a little.
“List of 100 Extreme Sports (Ultimate List for 2021)”
https://www.extremesportslab.com/list-of-100-extreme-sports/
Don’t do stupid things. Advice from my dad that I promptly ignored. 😊😊
True enough, same here. I’m surprised I made it to 18 years old and I have the scars and repaired broken bones to show for it. But I learned.
Classic! Hey, watch this! The philosophy of so many young men.
Kids! Obey the rules, be the best you can be, and be prepared to have tragedy visit you. Not!!!!! IF you are a boy, ignore all these adults telling you what to do. Ha Ha Ha Ha… you will be sorry, however, if you don’t pay attention.
?? No wonder young boys are so lost today. Too many folks telling them they are bad (or good), evil (or saintly), stupid (or smart). We should have someone like Gen. Satterfield write a book on how to be happy and a teenager. Now that is something to stick a fork into.
Yes, see his lead in article yesterday on a “message for young adults.”
https://www.theleadermaker.com/a-message-for-young-adults/
The makings of a new book from Gen. Satterfield perhaps. I recommend he write one on this topic.
I vote for it.
Oh, forgot to add that I bought Gen. Satterfield’s book, ‘Our Longest Year in Iraq.’ What a great read, straight forward from the get go. I never imagined what went on behind the scenes in a war. I was amazed. Get the book on Amazon. Yeah, I know you don’t like Amazon, but that is where it is.
https://www.amazon.com/Our-Longest-Year-Iraq-Construction/dp/1737915510/
Yeah…..✔️
” Fortunately, I’m still alive, surviving my childhood only by blind luck. I’ve got the scars to prove it and so does Wilson.” Yep, and I’m happy Gen. Satterfield survived to adulthood too. Otherwise, we would not have this option to learn about applied leadership.
Teenagers have a lot to learn about life and school and parents today are not doing a very good job of it. Boys and girls have different subjects they should be learning, like respect of elders, the other sex, teachers, etc. But they are not learning it right. There is value for the schools to get on board with this but if anything, schools have grossly failed our kids. This failure is manifested in so many narcissistic young adults who think they are god’s gift to the world when they are actually just babes.
Life is tough and full of tragedy. Learn to live with it.
I found this article funny and entertaining…the life of Gen. Satterfield must have been a humdinger.
Kids, it’s all about getting them thru life without something stupid happening to them along the way. I think that this article is more about young men than about young boys. At least as boys there is someone overseeing them so they don’t do something so stupid along the way. Not so much for young men who are just lose on the world.
We were all young once and know what we were thinking at the time. Watch out for young men, they are prone to remove themselves from the gene pool and, frankly, don’t really care.
That is what makes parents cringe whenever their teenage boys go out on their own with their friends (being with friends seems to make them more prone to doing something stupid AND dangerous). I would worry too.
That’s right. ✔
Tomfoolery. 👍👍👍👍👍
Stupidity!!!!!!
Craziness or just dumb blind luck!!!!
Good one! Yep, that is a boy thing. And, a young man thing to boot.