Can we try to be kind, try to be virtuous, try to be happy? Well, yes. Trying is always an option. But what has trying ever accomplished? Turn away from the man whose best counsel is to try harder. He’s an emissary of miserableness.
Love in its everyday clothes is kindness. To friends and family? Heck, no. Even the deranged and the desperate practice transactional kindness. True kindness flies straight to the dude in the ditch. It’s spontaneous and unattached. It hasn’t any protocols. It doesn’t want anything.
Be kind to your body but don’t pamper it or confuse it with yourself. It is, after all, just a body. Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust and all that.
“Would you like some rose refresher?” she asked, holding up a small opaque bottle. “Of course,” I replied from my position on the sofa. “Close your eyes,” she said. Then, from a distance of mere inches, she delivered four spritzes to my upturned face. “How does that feel?” she asked. “I’m a new man,” I said.
Factual men are quiet, kind, humble. Opinionated men are the opposite of that.
Men's Work 