What's Happened?

I was hanging out at home one morning with nothing in particular to do; I decided to knock the dust from my fishing gear and head to my favorite semi-secret fishing spot.  I texted my buddy Joe to see if he'd like to come along; the conversation went something like this:

ME:  Going fishing. Want to come?

JOE:  I'm in. What time?

ME:  Pick you up in 15.

JOE:  Sweet.   :-)

ME:  WTF!?  Is that a smiley face?

JOE:  Was an accident.

ME:  (Disgusted silence)

JOE:  Seriously.

When I think of a couple of guys heading out on a fishing trip, I think of layered flannel shirts, logging boots, and a long, treacherous hike through mountains inhabited only by rattlesnakes and bears.  Knowing there's no guarantee of safe return, the crafty woodsmen bring along emergency supplies like dehydrated beef, tourniquets, and a flare gun, their creels chock-full of rudimentary cooking utensils in case they're forced to spend the night in a shelter carved out of a snow drift and eat the flesh of wild game or river trout landed with hand-crafted fishing rods and a crude net fashioned from the branches of a very young oak. 

* * *

Joe and I pulled into the parking lot of the National Prairie Preserve, locked the Subaru, and prepared to do battle with leviathanic creatures of the deep.  We carried our Wal-Mart fishing poles and a few brightly-colored lures down the well-worn path to the overstocked pond and went head to head with all that mother nature had to offer.  After winching several 8-ouncers from the murky depths, we decided to take a break.  I handed my good buddy Joe a cold beer and asked: "So what's with the smiley face?" 

Thus started the conversation that continues here.  We spent the remainder of the afternoon basking in the elemental glory of a warm summer day wondering what's happened to men.  "Men just aren't as manly as they used to be" was the tired refrain as we tried to trace the origins of what our good buddy Arlen calls demanification.  We had no trouble identifying countless examples, but repeatedly got stuck when we tried to pinpoint the reason for our collective decline.

Here, friends, is your opportunity to join the conversation . . . the movement . . . the revolution, as a couple of guys set off in search of Man Skills.