Man Cave

Back in the 1990's a movement was afoot among men who were looking to create a "man cave" in the home.  This cave was often a section of the garage (complete with woodworking tools or car-care products), a "den", or a home theatre room.  The idea was that men needed a place to unwind, to trip back and decompress after a long day at work, or to keep busy on the weekends.

It's intersting that older men, in particular, usually end up creating some type of man cave for themselves.  It is also a space (usually) that women will find off-limits or disinteresting.

Me?  I've never been able to create a man cave in my life.  About the time I set up my home library and litter the floor with books, or create a home office where I can write uninterrupted, my wife enters the picture and tells me to tidy it up or she's throwing out the lot.  I've lost many valuable resources in this manner over the years.

I'm convinced that my wife has thrown away some of my best writing.  I know that she's pitched at least one best-selling novel (don't ask me which one, but it was a real humdinger) and I've been interrupted mid-sentence so many times and my perfect train-of-thought divested of so many incredible insights, my wife has cost us at least a $ million in lost writing revenues.  Oh, if only she'd kept her big nose out of my man cave and left me to my creative juices.  The best writing of my life has all been lost to interruptions.

Still, a man cave is a nice treat for an older guy who doesn't get out much anymore.  (Heck, I never got out much, are you kidding?)  In a man cave a fellow can hang newspaper clippings and create huge stacks of magazines and pile underwear up to the ceiling and sit Indian-style on the floor and clip his toenails into the carpeting.  He can peel down to his skivies and change the oil in the car on a hot summer afternoon without being interrupted with some inane question like, "What are you doing out there?"  In the man cave a guy can be his own person and blossom into the full manifestation of his boredom.  And if he lives in the country, he can just take a few steps away from the man cave and pee in the woods.  His wife won't like it, but a man still has to mark his territory.  He knows that snow-covered ground works best for lettering, and O's and X's are really fun.

One of these days I'm going to sit down with my son and explain the facts of life to him.  Not the biological facts (he already knows that junk) but the true facts about how life really works and what he will need to know in order to survive in this world. 

He won't believe me.  Young kids never do.  But one of these days he'll grow up and realize that he will need a space of his own.  His space won't be in my basement anymore, however.  As a father lives for the day when he can reclaim the pool table from his progeny and, at last, shoot a game of 8-ball in the nude.