I ran across this article on crying in Newsweek the other day (by Gordon Marino) and found it interesting. I will quote a few selected paragraphs and then tell you my thoughts on the subject of men crying: “There is a story in Herodotus about Xerxes. The Persian king is on a plateau proudly scanning his million-man army as it marches toward Greece. Suddenly, the emperor bursts into tears and exclaims, “They will all be gone in 100 years”. “I wonder if he wasn’t a little embarrassed in front of his generals. I also wonder if the lugubrious emperor wasn’t in his 50’s.”…….”women might know this better than men….but a good cry can make for a sounder sleep.”
Now, my thoughts: I too, have noticed that I have become more sentimental as I have aged. It seems to happen a lot when I watch a sad movie or listen to a woeful story with audio books. I tear-up when I think of the health struggles that my loved ones endure. I always assumed the tears were a result of the stress I was under by worrying about those close to me. According to Mr. Marino, it has more to do with age than anything else, and I think I agree with him. I know that as a younger man I hardly ever allowed myself to cry and when I did, mostly at funerals, I tried to suppress it as soon as possible. I am still amazed at how easily tears come, but I am no longer ashamed to cry. I never saw my father cry. As a young boy growing up I cannot ever remember seeing a grown man cry. That is such a shame, for I know they experienced heartache and sadness. Come to think of it, I don’t think I have ever seen my son cry as a grown man. Hopefully, one day he too will realize that a good cry cleanses the spirit and renews our belief that, in time, things will get better.
I booted up my PC the other morning, went in to eat breakfast, and when I returned it had shutdown. I was a little puzzled because that has never happened before (I have Windows Vista). I rebooted and shortly thereafter I received a notice that my PC was shutting down due to a “CPU fan failure” and then it crashed. Well, I had to take a moment to pick up the pieces of my broken heart. Then I think, “reboot again and, maybe, everything will be ok!” I do, with the same results. I know you have heard the old adage “don’t believe everything you think.” I felt like I had an extra bowl of stupid for breakfast. Off I go to CompUSA, buy the fan and install it. After a little tinkering I was back up and running as before the crash. Until I got it back to normal, I was walking around the house like a wounded hound. I can remember as a lad, being entertained by pushing a bicycle rim around with a stick. My, how I have changed.
My son and I went fishing last Sunday. We decided to fish off the James River Pier, so we packed up our fishing gear, jumped in the truck and headed off for an afternoon of father/son quality time. We were there for 3-4 hours and did not get the first bite. That mattered little to either of us, we chatted away, catching up each other’s lives, talking sports, politics and whatever else we could think of. He will of course eventually get serious about his fishing. It is his hobby and I expect it to occupy a lot of his free time. I think he will be disappointed in my attention span when it comes to fishing. Sometimes, I believe, he looks at me and thinks, “I don’t know what your problem is, but I’ll bet it is hard to pronounce”. I need to find him a fishing buddy that likes it as much as he does.
I received my cholesterol results the other day. I was quite pleased with the results after taking Vytorin for several months. My readings:
2007 2006
Total 106 186
Good 54 35
Bad 44 130
Triglycerides 41 105
The pain I was experiencing in my hips has mostly subsided and I plan to continue the medication and discuss it with my doctor during my annual physical in November.
Well, our trip to Los Angeles will commence next Monday (10/15/07) and we will return home on Thursday (10/25/07). Jerilyn and I are looking forward to the trip and the visit with her cousin and family. I am also looking forward to visiting with a childhood friend that lives close by. I will have lot to talk about in my next missive. Hopefully, I will also have some pics to share with you. I’m hoping John & Phyl, or Brenda, can get us in for a visit with the “Governator”.
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