Grateful for the ways you yourself are shifting the cultural narrative for men. Thank you for feeling all the feels and being willing to express and share🙏🏼. Our boys need more men like you sharing their truth. ✨
Thank you for raising two boys with such integrity and love, Genell, midst all the challenges. They are so special, and I love watching them grow into the light beings they are. So appreciate your encouragement.
Andrew. Coming from a 75 year old male you are right on. I respect you for doing this work. Would love to meet up to talk. Never forget our plane flight. Phil Corrinet
Well noted Andrew. I recall being told at 17 by a counselor after a battery of aptitude tests that I couldn’t be a leader, in this case a naval officer, because I thought more with my heart than with my head. I remember feeling less than, put down for being that way, and that they were right and there was something wrong with me. I also felt they were wrong and it shouldn’t be that way. I have fortunately been able to, if not suppress this patriarchal bullshit, at least hold on to enough of my truth that I can still see, and even believe more in that sense, that they truly were incorrect in their assessment. I know of a private school in Los Angeles that actually does take these issues into consideration in their curriculum. I’m sure there are others, but in the main the system remains strongly entrenched in the old paradigm. I’m not sure what the answer is except to continue to do what you and all of us that can see what we see to continue to be an example of our truth in this seemingly mad world. The emperor certainly is naked.
Thanks for this generous glimpse, Richard. I've been spared certain gauntlets that many men in your generation had to run through. Thank you for running through them, taking the hits, and coming out the other side with wisdom, love, truth, beauty, the medicine you've made and are making from that pain. I find it inspiring that there was always that part of you that knew "they" were wrong and it shouldn't be that way, hold on to enough of your truth that you can still see. And your reminder, to be an example of our truth in this seemingly mad world. To be an example of our truth. I take courage in these words!
We mothers and grandmothers need to hear this, too… i have drunk the wretched Kool-Aid around what it means to be a boy or a girl, man or woman… I am unlearning. Thank you for pointing to human longings that are shared, regardless of gender.
I've had a few female readers reach out to note that these dynamics are also at play for women as well. Thanks for noting this, Leslie! This strange Kool-Aid of forgetting-who-we-are impacts us all in different ways, but yes, probably the same brew of beliefs and misconceptions. So many of them, all the way down to the base illusion of separation. Lots to unlearn! Right there with you.
My goodness, this is an important piece, and I shared it with my family. It’s wonderful to now be in the position of searching deeply inside for open heart feelings rather than keeping them at bay to fit in. Thank you so much for the validation.
Yes the post is public, please feel free to share and thank you. Construing sensitivity as a weakness, for any gender, is one of the most profound confusions of reality in my opinion, and yet here we all are, dealing w the impact of these constructions. Reclaiming one word at a time.
Grateful for the ways you yourself are shifting the cultural narrative for men. Thank you for feeling all the feels and being willing to express and share🙏🏼. Our boys need more men like you sharing their truth. ✨
Thank you for raising two boys with such integrity and love, Genell, midst all the challenges. They are so special, and I love watching them grow into the light beings they are. So appreciate your encouragement.
Thanks Andrew
Andrew. Coming from a 75 year old male you are right on. I respect you for doing this work. Would love to meet up to talk. Never forget our plane flight. Phil Corrinet
Thank you, Phil. And yes, that was an unforgettable flight! So great to have you here in the Courtyard and be in conversation with you.
Well noted Andrew. I recall being told at 17 by a counselor after a battery of aptitude tests that I couldn’t be a leader, in this case a naval officer, because I thought more with my heart than with my head. I remember feeling less than, put down for being that way, and that they were right and there was something wrong with me. I also felt they were wrong and it shouldn’t be that way. I have fortunately been able to, if not suppress this patriarchal bullshit, at least hold on to enough of my truth that I can still see, and even believe more in that sense, that they truly were incorrect in their assessment. I know of a private school in Los Angeles that actually does take these issues into consideration in their curriculum. I’m sure there are others, but in the main the system remains strongly entrenched in the old paradigm. I’m not sure what the answer is except to continue to do what you and all of us that can see what we see to continue to be an example of our truth in this seemingly mad world. The emperor certainly is naked.
Thanks for this generous glimpse, Richard. I've been spared certain gauntlets that many men in your generation had to run through. Thank you for running through them, taking the hits, and coming out the other side with wisdom, love, truth, beauty, the medicine you've made and are making from that pain. I find it inspiring that there was always that part of you that knew "they" were wrong and it shouldn't be that way, hold on to enough of your truth that you can still see. And your reminder, to be an example of our truth in this seemingly mad world. To be an example of our truth. I take courage in these words!
We mothers and grandmothers need to hear this, too… i have drunk the wretched Kool-Aid around what it means to be a boy or a girl, man or woman… I am unlearning. Thank you for pointing to human longings that are shared, regardless of gender.
I've had a few female readers reach out to note that these dynamics are also at play for women as well. Thanks for noting this, Leslie! This strange Kool-Aid of forgetting-who-we-are impacts us all in different ways, but yes, probably the same brew of beliefs and misconceptions. So many of them, all the way down to the base illusion of separation. Lots to unlearn! Right there with you.
My goodness, this is an important piece, and I shared it with my family. It’s wonderful to now be in the position of searching deeply inside for open heart feelings rather than keeping them at bay to fit in. Thank you so much for the validation.
Yes the post is public, please feel free to share and thank you. Construing sensitivity as a weakness, for any gender, is one of the most profound confusions of reality in my opinion, and yet here we all are, dealing w the impact of these constructions. Reclaiming one word at a time.