How many ways can we show what it’s like to be a man?
Strength, honor, commitment, caring, honesty, toughness. Being emotional, being stoic, not showing you care, being careful.
Taking risks, pushing limits, moving forward, thinking first. Patience, restraint, self-control, being number one, setting expectations, meeting expectations.
Commanding attention, putting others first, waiting for the right moment, watching out for others, watching our for yourself.
Getting it done, figuring it out, asking for help, going it alone. Putting it all on the line, wondering what happens if you fall, picking yourself up, leaning on others, letting them lean on you.
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Being a man is a balancing act. The constant conflicting messages of what it means to be a man, how to be a man, who is a real man, what makes a real man.
It’s an ever-shifting message with an ever-shifting goal.
We’re used to images and words that tell us what and how to be men.
But I don’t think I’ve even seen a more perfect, more moving example of the shifting, balancing, turning act of masculinity than this single man in this video.
Thank you to my friend Jodee for posting this. It’s truly one of the loveliest things I’ve ever seen.
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bobbt Not being able to do that doesn’t negate masculinity! I can’t either. Few people can.
I just think this is a beautiful interpretation of the balance we try to achieve between expectations and reality, how strong we are expected to be and how sometimes we just collapse, the focus we try to place on so much at once.
It’s not about his physical being. It’s about how his movement reflects life,
I can’t do any of that!(in fact, I think I strained something watching ). Does that mean I’m not Masculine?