In this issue:

· Anniversary Issue

· Mensight Magazine Reprints Prostate Cancer Journal

· Automatic Pilot

Anniversary Issue!

Issue #25 marks the second anniversary of Menletter's e-mail edition and its first anniversary on the Web. Since its beginning, Menletter has signed on 120 e-mail subscribers. The Web site gets about 300-500 visitors per month. Those are pretty modest figures, except that Menletter has done very little promoting beyond word of mouth.

If you like what you've been reading here, I hope you'll pass along the Web address to your friends.

I've done a couple things to celebrate the anniversary.

First, I've redesigned the newsletter, both for e-mail and on the Web. The text is a little bigger and simpler, which should be easier to read, especially on-screen. One thing you'll notice right away is that the e-mail newsletter is just the articles and essays. The Events section and Resources (renamed Links) section are now at the Web site, with links from the current issue (e-mail and Web). This shouldn't be too inconvenient: The Web site is still text-only, and you should be able to get to it quickly even with a dial-up connection.

The current issue, whether e-mail or on the Web, has live links to other information on the Menletter Web site. They're just under the Menletter title at the top of this page. If your e-mail program doesn't recognize the links, you can simply go to the Web site and navigate from there.

Second, I've broken out most of the articles from past issues and gathered them into a table of contents on the Web site. The old archive of previous issues is still there, too, but the individual titles should be easier to find (and print out if you want). Just go to the Web site's home page and look for "Past Articles by Topic."

I have to admit to some favorites among the past articles. Here's one from each topic that might be worth re-reading, or reading for the first time if you missed it:

Health

The Prostate Cancer Journal that I've worked on from December 2003 to February 2004

My life has had many blessings; one of the best has been the company and community of men. Thanks for your support and kind words over the past couple of years.

Mensight Magazine Reprints Prostate Cancer Journal

Mensight Magazine: The Journal of Conscious Masculinity is an on-line magazine dedicated to publishing diverse articles for and about men. It has asked to reprint the Prostate Cancer Journal that appeared originally in Menletter. The first installment is available now in the April issue. You can reach Mensight Magazine at http://mensightmagazine.com. The monthly magazine is a service of The Men's Center (http://themenscenter.com).

Mensight is a rich source of male-positive articles and regular columns. The Men's Center is a gateway to a huge amount of material about, by, and for men, including national and state resources, publications, events, a chat, a bulletin board, and much, much more. Jim Bracewell, Webmaster of both sites, is a veteran in men's work.

Automatic Pilot

We work on our spiritual selves, through religious or meditation practices, trying to become better, more aware men. One of the things I work on, for instance, is "right speech," the Buddhist practice of telling the truth, being kind in our speech, and not engaging in gossip and idle chatter.

But if you irritate me enough, you're likely to get an earful of unkind-sounding words. And if I'm embarrassed about something you ask me, you're not likely to get the whole truth out of me. And if you come to me with a juicy bit of gossip . . . well, you get the picture.

How easily diligence slides into laziness, loving-kindness slides into active dislike, compassion slides into stony indifference, moderation slides into gluttony!

What the heck is going on here? And how do I reverse my tendencies to backslide from what I know I should be doing?

One way to look at it is that, if I practice often enough and deeply enough, I'll become so evolved, so aware, that I'll catch myself before I slip.

Another way to look at it is that I'm only human, a sinner after all, and that human nature will always eventually trump the most pious intentions.

The first way seems arduous, perhaps impossible; the second way is just defeatist.

How about another way to look at all this? One word that comes up fairly often in our spiritual seeking is "practice." Meditation practice. Dharma practice. Religious practice.

What happens in the more mundane world of practice? In sports, if you practice enough, you'll eventually get pretty good -- maybe without the underlying talent to achieve pro levels, but still pretty good. When you learned to drive, you probably had a learner's permit and had to go out and practice with Mom or Dad sitting nervously in the passenger seat. If you're a musician, you know that regular practice is vital.

At first, we're usually awkward and make a lot of mistakes -- missed shots, jerky clutch pedal, missed notes. Even when we've gotten pretty good, the practice of the skill takes huge chunks of our concentration.

Then something happens. At some indefinable point, we notice that the skill has become automatic. We may not even be able to identify this point in time and place. Suddenly we don't have to think about technique in making a basket or hitting a baseball, or consciously remember put the turn signal on and check the mirrors before turning, or figure out the fingering for the next note. Things have begun to flow. Yes, there will still be more practicing, but we've crossed some sort of threshold.

Now let's think about spiritual practices. How do we know that a practice is "working"? I'll propose this: A practice "works" when we notice that it has become automatic. Just as we might thoughtlessly make a snide remark about a co-worker, we just as thoughtlessly say something kind -- or at least shut up. A usually unpleasant colleague asks for help and we gladly pitch in, before we can catch ourselves and remember that this is the last person on Earth we'd like to help. Our partner is unhappy about something we did, and we find ourselves listening sympathetically rather than getting huffy or defensive.

Does this work all the time? Of course not. Our aim can go off in sports, or our driving need more conscious attention when we're feeling distracted, or we can lose our touch on the piano. We've heard about the baseball player in a slump who goes "back to the fundamentals" with extra batting practice.

Sometimes we have to go back to the fundamentals in our spiritual practice. Most of us do the "right" thing a good deal of the time. A spiritual practice can make those right things come a bit more frequently, a bit more automatically.

In this issue:

Anniversary Issue!

Health

Society and Relationships

Spirituality and Inner Growth

Men's Work

Mensight Magazine Reprints Prostate Cancer Journal

Automatic Pilot