IF A TREE CRIES, DOES IT HAVE ANY FRIENDS WHO WILL HEAR IT …
I heard yesterday that the average American male has “less than one” true friend. The kind of friend with whom he is bluntly honest and openly vulnerable. The kind of friend with whom he is free to admit that he is lonely, or afraid, or at the end of his rope, or whatever else might make him appear to be “weak.”
Oh, he has friends with whom to go fishing or to a ball game. Plenty of guys with whom to go out drinking or eating. Men from whom he is free to ask to borrow a tool or to lend a hand with some manly task or another.
But friendship that exposes his raw emotions that might show his fear or loneliness? “Less than one.”
So permit me to share the following worth thinking about:
“A friend is one before whom I may think aloud.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
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I wonder (and by asking the question, I assume an affirmative response) if this is due to societal pressure to "be a man." I.e., men don't share these sorts of things with one another because society would dub them not man-like if they did. Interestingly, I find that many of my guy friends do not share these sorts of things w/ their other guy friends... but will open up with their female friends (and, as always, significant others -- at least to some degree).
ReplyDeleteWhile I am not an advocate for the "womanizing" of men, I do think there is something to be said for a man who can be honest with his feelings, regardless of the person with which he is speaking.
I also note that, in these days of online "journaling"... many men could conceivably open up, anonymously or publicly, via the "interwebs." :)
But, in the end, I agree that, man or woman, everyone needs at least 1 "real" friend...