A Real Flex

 A real flex is just being yourself in a world where people live for an image.

Esther Rowe: Why Men Don’t Share Pain

 Men don't like sharing their pain with women for the same reason parents don't like sharing their pain with children.

They don't think you can handle it, and they think they'll look lesser in your eyes.

And the thing is, they're usually right about both of those things.

Why would a man share these things with a woman? What is she going to do about it? Save him? Respect him more? No. She'll worry about him, but she'll also begin to lose confidence in him.

That's the thing about being a leader. You don't keep the job if you're not cut out for it.

And when a man opens up like a mother sharing her most intimate anxieties with her child, there's a sense of regret and shame with having burdened a weaker soul with horrors not meant for them. There's a type of disgust with one's self for failing to contain the suffering.

And of course the very best of women, like a child, would most earnestly want to help. They would. They hate the idea you suffer alone, and would love to help you feel better. It's not that they don't care. They do. It's just that this pain isn't meant for them.

Even when men are hurting, they're putting you first, protecting you, shielding you from burden.

Remember that next time you say a man isn't in touch with his emotions.

He is. And that's why he does his best not to subject you to his most personal horrors.

If something is up with him, don't ask him what it is. Let him protect you and maintain his dignity. Do sweet little things for him. Be his ignorant comfort. He will appreciate it and be vitalized with the morale he needs to defeat his demons.

Nagging achieves the opposite.