THE MONUMENTS WE'VE DESTROYED.  The dean at Anonymous Community contemplates his son discovering sports, and perhaps Guyland.

For all the gender theory I waded through -- and yes, dear readers, I did -- the on-the-ground version of masculinity that I keep coming back to as a regulative ideal is something like a gentleman. Not a Sensitive New Age Guy, since that always struck me as creepily passive-aggressive, and certainly not a frat guy. Something more like a self-possessed, confident man who thinks enough of himself to treat others with respect. Not a saint or a martyr, but a decent man who understands, even if imperfectly, that his actions affect other people. My grandfather was like that, even if he would never use terms like these.

Between Grandpa and his son, however, the gods placed the Consciousness Revolution, an era in which the humorless harridans with institutional haircuts hectored anyone so retrograde as to hold a door open.