Hello Men,


I am not receiving much from this e-mail discussion list [for leaders of men]. I am wondering if it is because we are struggling with all that is going on in the world now. How are you doing? Can you feel or notice any struggle? 


It can be hard for us to feel anything or notice that we are struggling.


The quarantine is not much different than the isolation that many of us always live with.


It is always hard for me to tell [perceive] that anything is hard. I have to ask my spouse how I am doing. She is more likely to know my mental and emotional state than I am.


I like having our struggles exposed and talked about. It is helpful to me.


Here is the spoken prelude to a song, “Somewhere North of Nashville,” by Bruce Springsteen, a U.S. working-class rock star, from one of his video albums. It has been helpful to me and breaks my feelings of isolation. He is good at talking about what it is like being a man. 


“I wrote this song quickly at the kitchen table one morning. It’s just about being lost on the highway of life. Lost is something I’m good at writing about. Sometimes you’ve been too beat up, or haven’t healed enough of the fear out of you, to know a good thing when you’ve found it. Sometimes you just gravitate to the pain. It’s what you’re used to. It’s how you recognize yourself. It feels like home. It feels more familiar to you than love. So that’s where you go. You don’t know how to hold on to love, but you know how to hold on to hurt.”


What can you notice?