The Scottish Enlightenment

Man blues

02.Jul.08

Being part of a male herd is easy. We do not ask each other how we feel, nor cast burrowing looks at our comrades trying to work out ‘whats really going on inside’. We do not arc vulture-like over the remains of a night out and pick at the bones until we know exactly who was off with who and which were the best dressed character flaws. Nor do we involve ourselves much in the daily undulation of spirit we (surely must) know are as real for our friends as for us. We are little help, and little hindrance. Thus we dont get involved in the murky mess within, and everything remains relatively untangled. We just do friendship the simple way, and it all works out very easily, and often quite fun.

…Until doing friendship at all means being able to communicate that we care. Like when it all falls apart for one of the herd. When the grass is brown on both sides. When the cow pat hits the frangipani. And we find we have developed no actually utterable language to say ‘i feel sad for you’ or ’i want to help’… whatever females say to each other in these situations.

So most likely all we muster is a dangling, conspicuously unconnected ‘alright?’ And most likely, that does it anyway.