Orin J. Hahn has something he wants to share with you about “The Good Life.”
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When I was a child I remember a friend sharing his prized secret with me: peeks at his older brother’s stack of Playboys. At the time it was pretty cool. After all, not only was there a look into what was hidden beneath the clothes of girls (which were starting to become magically more interesting), but also page after page of glossy stereo equipment, cars, men who looked like they knew the answer to everything. From then, on through my later teen years, if you’d have asked my young self what the good life was it would have been within those covers.
In my 20’s, as a working artist, a young married guy and, shortly thereafter, a father, the good life was about feeling wanted and at home in the life I was building. The challenge of changing roles—father, husband, son, worker, leader—often seemed to conflict and demand an invalidation of one of the others; I could wear many hats but had to always leave one behind.
At 30 I faced divorce, loneliness, poverty, possible homelessness and the beginnings of losing family members. The good life in the beginning of that decade was simply a desire to return to zero; to feel like the losses and wins were balanced enough to stop the spin.
Now here I am at 40 and find myself having a pretty damn good life. The definition has changed many times while still retaining valuable bits of the travels between stages. These days, I live it more often than I find myself wanting for it. And yet the learning continues in stories that I promise in time I’ll share.
As part of that promise I have taken up the role of Editor of “The Good Life” section on The Good Men Project. I’m looking for people to engage in what I think is fundamental at any age to creating the good life: to share their stories and their appreciation of the ups and downs of life. In doing so, we invite discussion about what the good life is, has been or could be.
I want to hear from men and women on what modern day manhood or the role of men in your life means in regards to living out the good life.
What are you working towards? Who do you care about? What turns things from being a challenge to being a fundamentally valued part of life? Those are the stories I’m looking to hear from as many of you as possible.
In exchange for your tales I can promise you this: your writing will have access to a large and growing community; you will have support—as much or as little as you want—in the form of inspiration, editing and promotion; and you will have an opportunity at what I personally believe is fundamental to a good life: the ability to create it by personally stirring people’s hearts.
The next move is yours, contact me at [email protected]. I look forward to our adventures!