In Memoriam, Don Jones; International Men's Mentoring Organization Loses an Elder

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image courtesy of Tony Schanuel

The saving thing is with all the devastation that men have wrought there is still an initiation hunger in the hearts of every man. He knows there is a greater manhood he is intended for but he has not yet realized it - it never dies.

Indianapolis, Indiana (PRWEB) August 08, 2014

Honoring the passing of Don Jones - January 26, 1930 - August 6, 2014

The men of the MKP USA Board, Council and Staff are deeply saddened to share the passing of Don Jones, author of “Wisdom for the Journey,” an early member of the Indianapolis Community of the ManKind Project, a Certified Full Leader for the New Warrior Training Adventure, and one of only 7 recipients of the Circle of Honor Global Award presented at the 25th Anniversary Celebration of the ManKind Project in Louisville KY.

Don’s powerful contributions to the ManKind Project were numerous, stretching back to his own New Warrior Training Adventure weekend in 1990. He staffed more than 75 New Warrior Training Adventures, was a mentor to dozens of men on the track to Leadership roles, and a friend to hundreds of men around the world. For a time he served as the Chairman of the ManKind Project International. He was an honored Elder to multiple generations of New Warrior Training Adventure leaders. Through his leadership, inspiration, spirit, wisdom, and insight into the human condition, he changed the lives of thousands of men, many of whom will never know his name.

Don succumbed to complications from his ongoing battle with cancer on August 7, 2014. In an interview he gave to the ManKind Project Journal in 2005, he was already a 10 year cancer survivor. He lived strong for 19 years after first being diagnosed. Don would have turned 85 in January.

From his 2005 interview, "I have the consciousness that there is a precocious divine child within me," he said, "an energetic, miraculous little character who's got a lot of wisdom. He sees the humor in just about everything. He just pops out. I think that's one reason I survived cancer and expect to live quite a long time. An elder who doesn't have a connection with his divine child within him is likely to become a crusty old bastard. You'll meet elders and wonder how they stay young as they are ... there's an inner connection with a youthful spirit that keeps animating them as they get older."

Speaking about the ManKind Project and initiation, he said,

“The saving thing is with all the devastation that men have wrought there is still an initiation hunger in the hearts of every man," Jones expressed. "He knows there is a greater manhood he is intended for but he has not yet realized it - it never dies, it is archetypal, universal and permanent. And I believe that's the explanation why the MKP organization has grown more rapidly than any other form of men's movement. It satisfies that initiation hunger. Once that part begins to be fed it initiates him into a true man - a whole man. And the gates are swinging wide to welcome that man!”

Don was one of the men responsible for crafting the identity statement of the New Warrior Network, which was retained through the transition to the ManKind Project;

We are an order of Men, called to reclaim the Sacred Masculine, through training, initiation and action in the world!

"There is no more we at the ManKind Project USA can do than humbly offer our gratitude for Don’s decades of service, and our tears at the passing of a King." said Robert Powell, current Chairman of the ManKind Project USA.

Included below is a poem written by Jones, who was described by many as a master of the spoken word, as an orator and a writer.

ANTHROPOS RISING

By Don Jones

The Anthropos is rising!
The age-old, original man is coming to claim us
from our shadow imitations of manhood!

Patriarchal Man is dying!
You know him well - the one who feeds on dominance
over women and children -
The one who lords it over other men,
And who rapes even the earth itself in the godawful illusion
that he owns even Her.

Macho Man is a zombie -
a walking dead man who tries to keep himself alive
by worshipping fire power.
He stalks the earth with grotesque bravado,
threatening the life of everything that breathes,
unable to connect with anything except out of this Killer.

Mercenary Man is a joke!
He has substituted money for the true riches of life,
and has lost any sense of mission other than the bottom line.
His days are numbered, and his feverish grip upon Things
will never save him.

The Anthropos is rising!
The gates of history are swinging wide to welcome
The New Man, The True Man, The Whole Man!
The man who loves woman, not in the tired, old seductive way,
but genuinely from the heart, and joins with her in the embrace of equality!
The one who loves and nurtures little children because
he sees in them the seeds of a new world in the making!
The one who blesses and does not curse other men because
they are courageous brother warriors whose saving mission
is the same as his own!
The man who reverences the earth, and protects Her,
and helps Her become the majestic Mother Garden
she was intended to be from the beginning.

The Anthropos is rising! The Anthropos is rising!
I beg, I plead with you to welcome with me
the rising of the Anthropos - the Man who though long in coming
is striding through the gates even now!

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The following is a note offered by the Chairman of the ManKind Project International, David Kaar, who had known Don Jones since the early 1990's.

Dear Older Brother, teacher, mentor, good father, colleague, friend,

Thank you for your passion, unquenchable life force and example.
Thank you for insisting that we create the Elder Council and remember the elders.
Thank you for your leadership as MKP Chairman, Leader Council Chairman, Leader and Trainer and community builder and convener of the Round Table.
Thank you for your advice, counsel, wisdom and friendship..... and poetry!
Thank you for sharing your life with us.

Good bye for now,
~ David Kaar, MKP International Chairman, Full Leader

The ManKind Project USA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit training and education organization and is not affiliated with any religious practice or political party. MKP USA strives to be increasingly diverse and culturally aware. Learn more about the ManKind Project USA at http://mkpusa.org.

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