By Bernard Balogun.
Many a time, when you asked a man – how are you and he replied – l am fine.
Is he truly fine? Do you really believe him? Not in a society like ours.
Let me tell you the truth, he is not fine.
The man fights the battle of life every single day in silence.
He faces the fears and challenges of life every single day and tries to remain strong because society has taught him so.
He is not allowed to break. Do you know the number of times this man stood at the edge of collapse? The number of times he had gone to bed trying to convince himself that things will get better. The number of times he tried to scream but suddenly remembers he is a man and the society does not expect him to scream. So he painfully swallowed the pains in his heart. Then his heartache begins. No one cares what he is going through. If he complains, he is quickly reminded, we all have struggles.
Many times, he is accused of being a narcissist. He is told to stop being timid.
In a nutshell this is the complexity and challenges men go through.
They carry too many loads, thinking in their heads, yet the compartment of the brain is so small to accommodate the loads of thinking. What next? High blood pressure sets in. Then stroke. And death.
The reason you find women out-live the men.
It is not an attempt to provoke a needless controversy but a gentle reminder of what most men go through.
Balogun, a media practitioner,writes from Abuja.
