Unmanly
It had been brewing for months, but I’d contained it, until something set it off, I don’t know what. Somehow, my heart had become saturated. I was on the phone with someone, and I had to hang up. I could feel it coming, and I couldn’t stop it, didn’t want to stop it.
I sobbed, throwing out desperate question after desperate question. I didn’t know the answers to these questions. Why?
Crying. That most natural behavior when you’re a child. But then, at a certain point, when you’re grown, not. You don’t think twice when you hear a baby cry. But an adult?
The complete vulnerability, nakedness, all of it poured out of my eyes and throat. And afterward—you all know this—stunned and exhausted, wrung out, nothing left, nothing. No answers. But blessed surrender. The release of those pent-up feelings, overcoming the instinct to keep in control, for God’s sake, not to mention the sense, in my case at least, that it’s unmanly to cry—
Remember Rosie Greer singing "It's alright to cry!" (from Free to Be You And Me) l
Look it up and sing along. 🥰
Sometimes crying needs to happen, for some of us, at least. It can be embarrassing if one feels it is making someone uncomfortable. There is no shame in letting go. If that’s where your emotions are taking you, why fight it. It can be cathartic. I like this short piece, Richard. Of course, it also makes me sad. One likes to think of one’s friends as happy-go-lucky. I hope the spring light and air are making you full of energy and hope.