Autismdadvocate members - I received a lot of interesting emails from you based on my “Epidemic of Loneliness in North America” blog post. I hadn’t realized that I would hit such a nerve with many of you. Thank you for your responses.
Concurrent to writing that, I was reading a book by Kim Evensen, called “Brothers”. Kim is the CEO & Founder of the global Brothers organization. He was born in Norway but lives in Australia. He has three years of leadership education, four years of acting education, and he studies men's development and friendships independently. He is the author of two books: The Real Bro Code (2020) and Brothers (2019)
Kim and I exchanged several emails and he agreed to write a guest blog for Autismdadvocate.org. I am deeply grateful for Kim’s contribution, as he was just finishing his second book. Enjoy.
-Paul
Why are friendships so important? ⁃ A guest post by the founder of the Brothers organization.
A little while back I got an e-mail from a guy who thanked me for doing the work that I do. I was honoured that he took the time to let me know, and I was truly encouraged and inspired after reading his e-mail.
The man who e-mailed me was Paul Carroll - the founder of Autismdadvocate.org, and I wanna start off this little article by saying thank you, Paul, for doing such a great work with Autismdadvocate - but also for taking your time to encourage others in the work they’re doing. We’re better together. Always.
My name is Kim Evensen, and I am the CEO of the Brothers organization - an organization dedicated to empowering boys’ and men’s friendships. Why on earth do I run an organization about this? Well, because our friendships are some of the most important relationships in our lives, and they will without a doubt determine how our future is gonna look.
I started Brothers because I realised that if we as men only settle for popular culture’s standard of how a guy’s friendships should look like, we won’t get a lot of meaningful ones. A friendship should be much more than just a beer at a bar, a wing-man, a workout buddy - or a shallow hang-out. And though there’s nothing wrong at all with having a beer at a bar with a bro, for instance - a man definitely needs some friendships that are built on something deeper than that.
I just recently released a book called “The Real Bro Code: The essential guide for dudes on how to be a bro” - a book that really encourages guys to learn more about how the culture around us has affected the way we think and do friendship. It also invites the reader to reflect over his own friendships like he’s never done before. I think we all need to dare to challenge our way of thinking - especially on the topic of friendship, in order for us to actually see our friendships grow even stronger and deeper.
Too many men have been taught to just deal with their issues on their own and to not share how they’re really doing with their friends. Too many men have settled for shallow hang-outs when they could’ve enjoyed deep, meaningful friendships. Too many fathers are trying to run a solo-race, when they could have invited their brothers to join the journey.
We need each other. Every man, every father - needs a bro to rely on. Not only on the challenging days, but on the good days as well.
Kim Evensen -August 2020