You risk tears if you let yourself be tamed.

We are living at an important and fruitful moment now, for it is clear to men that the images of adult manhood given by the popular culture are worn out; a man can no longer depend on them. By the time a man is thirty-five he knows that the images of the right man, the tough man, the true man which he received in high school do not work in life.

Robert Bly in Iron John





Grown-ups like numbers. When you tell them about a new friend, they never ask questions about what really matters. They never ask: "What does his voice sound like?" "What games does he like best?" "Does he collect butterflies?". They ask: "How old is he?" "How many brothers does he have?" "How much does he weigh?" "How much money does his father make?" Only then do they think they know him.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Le petit prince




....A dream, maybe a hope, I don't know.
And I don't know about other things. Whenever I'd felt a thought or something like an idea or a desire creeping through my ice-cold Narrangansett beers and tall screwdrivers, I could always turn on the television and get away from me.
In Scouts, before the beers and the seventy channels on the TV, I'd lie in my tent, awake all night with hopes of happy grapefruit breasts and worries about tomorrow.

They're here again. The breasts, the worries, the hopefulness. How strange it is to feel a child's feelings again. This man full of holes. This bicycle-pushing, knap-sacked old man.....
But this is how I think, away from the tall drinks and remote control.

Rom McLarty, The memory of running




She filled my house with flowers
and I helped her look for rainbows –
she understood so many things,
the importance of laughter
and that each moment is forever –
she dreamed impossible dreams,
smiled at strangers
because they might be lonely
and loved music, bells and butterflies
I’ll think of her on sunlit days
and see her smile
in every flower…

The thoughts of Nanushka, N. Witcomb