Harpgirl,excellent summation of men's lives. I work in a factory where the macho posturing is almost comical, that is, if it weren't so sad. No one there would be caught dead crying, or even admit to having cried in the past,unless it was a grieving situation.

But you are right,when we get in this place of others depending on us, we circle the wagons, and feelings be damned. Men do indeed cry, I think as we get older it gets easier to do so. But nobody in the general population is going to see it. Why? We are raised to be that way, and sharing intimacy between each other is not only uncommon, we are taught it is unmanly. And we all wear the mask of the beast when we really want to lay down and let it go.

The child is father to the man. Clifton