Since the 1960s, many men have struggled to find a new definition of masculinity, one that does not involve shutting down emotionally only to burst out in anger or violence once those feelings surface. In the 1980s, Robert Bly, a leader of the men's movement, wisely and sadly noted that men don't talk about their feelings because when they look inside, they cannot find them. And the common experience of the absent father is also a reflection of that distant God whom we can't access-He came, He procreated, He went to the office, so obey the rules while He's gone and He'll be back on Judgment Day to punish you if you were naughty. Expressing most feelings other than anger is taboo for men, and many of us women also have this problem of repressed emotion, especially when we enter the once-forbidden work realms of men, where strong emotion is considered a weakness. Bly's other great and wise suggestion was that the appropriate response to such an absence of feelings is grief.
( Phyllis Curott )
[ Witch Crafting: A Spiritual ]
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