Masculinity Redefined: A War Memoir?

Hey All-

As early as Friday or as late as Monday I will be mailing one of the most talented Literary Agents I have come across currently representing some pretty big sellers in the entire spectrum of non-fiction.  Wish me luck, and know I feel really good about the three years I've put into digesting and realizing this project.

Yes, it is a war (yawn) memoir about my time in Iraq.  BUT what I'd much rather do is bring out my Spiritual and PERSONal quirks among men I love collectively connecting in their meat-head manner.  I drive a semi-truck recklessly, lift too many weights, display courage and cowardice through the exact same moments.  I am a minor mechanic for my truck.  I feel perfected through a hardened facade, pushing myself past my physical limits.  Verbal vulgarities reinforce the shell, protecting the all-too-sensative human stuck in a situation he didn't want and doesn't believe in.

I want to model the masculine role in which I was raised, in small town Midwestern America, to believe defines  "a real man."  And I hope I make every "real man" out there uncomfortable by spotlighting my childhood quirks.

But I also comment on which dining facility serves the best quiche.  I meditate daily.  I write horrible angsty-lovey late-teen poetry.  I admit to playing Magic:  The Gathering.  I ruminate on the beauty of Natalie Merchant and Beethoven.  I sew the crotch of my own trousers when they keep ripping out.  I serenade a tape recorder with Come Away with Me by Nora Jones, just to time a speech for the lengthy bridge.  I don't watch or care for sports or television.  When my tent-mates ask what I'm always writing, I tell them I'm striving to vividly describe a sunset.

My question is, do you believe this is something the Collective can use?  Again, I was raised in the small Midwestern American town who thinks John Wayne's method of fisting his problems is a virtue.  The rest of the world has evolved beyond this stereotype, this archetype.  My hope is that emotional and spiritual transparency can help those whom the Integral community dubs the "Amber First-tier Audience."

I'm contained by my reality frame and chained to the terrain I've been trained not to change, which means I may see a potential for total impact in the mindsets I'm surrounded by, which I also see as having too much sway in the National Conversation...

...and I may be Don Quixote, playing a hero's part in an ancient, left behind world.

What are your thoughts?