Thank you for this essay. You’re so right about our culture wanting men to be honest and vulnerable but then we’re totally unequipped to deal with raw emotions. This was clearly a difficult share for you, but I am so grateful you did. We all need to do better understanding those we don’t get, or worse, just dismiss. I wish you well. Keep clawing your way out of that black hole.
Read your article several times, altho as a 76 year old single woman, I am not your target audience.
I salute you for having the courage to write what you know from experience. It is a generous gift to the unknowns who may be suffering similar tortures.
Young people are the most vulnerable - wanting to belong, simultaneously struggling to be recognized as unique and individual. The fear of alienation looms large. A perk of age is developing a carapace to repel many of those "slings and arrows... whips and scorns"...
Ours is a contradictory society. We go to our church of choice absorbing the tenets of same, and upon exiting forget the practical application. The "do unto others" should be an easy rule to follow, but is overshadowed by expediency.
At my age I would have expected to be more "enlightened", and yet I struggle to comprehend amorphous hate.
We have many choices in life; we do not get to choose our skin or eye color; bone structure, ethnicity, sexual orientation ,etc. To hate someone because they are not as we we think they should be, is quite beyond me.
I hope your powerful words will reach multitudes and offer comfort and hope to those who may think they are alone.
Good one Michael. You’re poking at “family of origin” stuff here. Fear of vulnerability—and shame for revealing it—come way back from the idea of being emotionally punished for it by our fathers. We may not have even been aware of it at the time—but there it is.
Thank you for this piece, and for sharing your vulnerability. Society does a bad job for men, and women are conditioned too, to have unrealistic expectations of a male human being. I grew up as a musician and the boys in the orchestra were mercilessly teased by the "regular" kids, especially the boys. They were such sweet boys, these musicians who expressed their souls through music. It's supposedly a new era 50 years later but nothing has changed, unfortunately. Keep telling your truths, and sharing, and I'm glad you're feeling a bit better now. Some of the most profound and universal writing comes from the darkness.
Thank you for this essay. You’re so right about our culture wanting men to be honest and vulnerable but then we’re totally unequipped to deal with raw emotions. This was clearly a difficult share for you, but I am so grateful you did. We all need to do better understanding those we don’t get, or worse, just dismiss. I wish you well. Keep clawing your way out of that black hole.
Read your article several times, altho as a 76 year old single woman, I am not your target audience.
I salute you for having the courage to write what you know from experience. It is a generous gift to the unknowns who may be suffering similar tortures.
Young people are the most vulnerable - wanting to belong, simultaneously struggling to be recognized as unique and individual. The fear of alienation looms large. A perk of age is developing a carapace to repel many of those "slings and arrows... whips and scorns"...
Ours is a contradictory society. We go to our church of choice absorbing the tenets of same, and upon exiting forget the practical application. The "do unto others" should be an easy rule to follow, but is overshadowed by expediency.
At my age I would have expected to be more "enlightened", and yet I struggle to comprehend amorphous hate.
We have many choices in life; we do not get to choose our skin or eye color; bone structure, ethnicity, sexual orientation ,etc. To hate someone because they are not as we we think they should be, is quite beyond me.
I hope your powerful words will reach multitudes and offer comfort and hope to those who may think they are alone.
Good one Michael. You’re poking at “family of origin” stuff here. Fear of vulnerability—and shame for revealing it—come way back from the idea of being emotionally punished for it by our fathers. We may not have even been aware of it at the time—but there it is.
Thank you for reading!
Oh, how I ache for the times I have shunned men in my life for expressing their vulnerability in ways I did not accept. Thank you for sharing this.
❤️❤️ thank you for reading
Thank you for this piece, and for sharing your vulnerability. Society does a bad job for men, and women are conditioned too, to have unrealistic expectations of a male human being. I grew up as a musician and the boys in the orchestra were mercilessly teased by the "regular" kids, especially the boys. They were such sweet boys, these musicians who expressed their souls through music. It's supposedly a new era 50 years later but nothing has changed, unfortunately. Keep telling your truths, and sharing, and I'm glad you're feeling a bit better now. Some of the most profound and universal writing comes from the darkness.
Thank you so much for reading, and for your kind comment ❤️
Thank you for reading and for the lovely comment!