Whats in YOURRR wallet?

The title comes from the question posed by a barbarian at the end of each of CitiBank VISAs current ads. The ads deplict mongol hordes or warriors of some kind en masse charging down on the home of some unsuspecting credit card user. The barbarians are thwarted at the threshold, however, when they discover the card user has a CitiBank card.

While I appreciate the cleverness of this advertising strategy, I am writing because of a possibly accidental depiction in the ads. These mongol hordes are not men bent on seiging the house in order to gain ground in some well crafted war strategy. Nor are these psychotic berzerkers who have no clue what they are doing and only barely keep from attacking themselves.

No, what is depicted are professional warriors who simply enjoy what they do. These are men who just want to sack a house, because they enjoy sacking houses. And, if this is the home of a CitiBank user, then they are just as content to march instead against their neighbor’s home! It is this enjoyment of the hunt and smash that I find so endearing about the men deplicted in the ad.

At a men’s retreat several years ago, a group of some 20 men from my church met to discuss men’s issues and needs in our church and in men at large. During one session of the meeting, after several people had shared about needs for intimacy and emotional openness, I then asked the group, “Yes, but isn’t sometimes true too, that we feel the need to grab our swords and attack and plunder the nearest city?!”

At least in this group, it appears I was alone in that sentiment. However, I believe as do many other researchers and observers that men (and, some women, to be fair) do have a deep inherant desire to “do combat”. Not because they are angry with themselves or the world. Not because they have a violent hatred, a murderous desire. But rather, simply for the enjoyment of the quest and the thrill of the challenge. This is the club-swinging desire to ask everyone, “Whats in your wallet?”

Did you play “hide-n-go seek” as a child? Bombardament? “Chase”? “Smear-the-queer”? Did you enjoy these games? If not, was it because they seemed dumb and pointless, or was it because you always lost? If it seemed dumb and pointless, I’m going to wager that most of you who answered that way are women. I’m not trying to be sexist, but I am identifying that there is a distinct gender bias to this need to bash – and, that its okay. If you always lost, you could be of either gender, and probably avoid any such contests. And that’s really a shame. It means your early experiences with these games were with people who didn’t understand good sportsmanship.

I will come back to the matter of sportsmanship.

All of these games found the purest refinement in one sport – Capture the Flag. Capture the Flag is a game best played over a dozen acres (or more) of sparsely timbered rolling hillside. Or, in an urban environment. It contains the elements of long-range strategy, reconnaisance, and teamwork. It also contains the elements of tactical advantage, individual ops, stealth and subterfuge. It is the perfect mongol horde type of game.

Paintball sports are the next evolution of the game. This is capture the flag using tools.

The next evolution of the game takes place in the computer, for some, or the military for others.

I am one of the former.

(cont’d)