huMANs

Lately, I've been observing how men feel, in general. The first bizarre thing that I came across was how it's just assumed of everyone everywhere to deny them emotional sensitivity as a whole community. For a long period, rather till about five years back, this narrative- combined with some of my unresolved experiences- led me to believe that men just don't understand emotions or probably do not even have them. And now from what I see and observe, men have very precise and accurate cognizance of emotions and feelings. It's as if the entire painting of life is painted in black color on a black canvas in their case. The painting is there, but no one can see it. There is an element of empathy and compassion, because well at the end of the day, he is just another fellow human being. I see it in my brother, in the guy sitting on the stairs near me, I see it in a married old man, I see it in a young guy in his tweens, I see it in a man selling fruits on his handcart on the streets. And then there's a supposedly dark side to this, which I can see as well, that they are plainly bluntly denied their need to emote. The entire narrative at the moment of emotional sensitivity seems to have been crafted against them, which is literally weird- for the simple reason that they have emotions, can understand and process, and can probably do it better than women sometimes. This belief is as sensible as saying women can't drive! It's a baseless belief.

It's pretty visible to me that they have an equally evident and essential emotional sensitivity. For example, right now I'm at Jawahar Kala Kendra in Jaipur and I see men taking equal part in theatrical shows here. They emote, they support, and they express their need for support- contrary to what the painting on the black canvas portrays.

What I also see is that there is some sort of lack of understanding. Like in terms of how emotional boundaries are not as well defined as physical boundaries are. We are usually taught to restrict our boundaries to physical touch (I'm just trying to explore and understand here). So if a human gets physically touched without consent, it is normally a problem. That's a rule accepted everywhere. But what about when someone crosses a person's emotional boundaries- either verbally or through non-verbal gestures, without their consent- like a breach of trust, a foul word, or shaming for a limitation? That again is wrong to do to anyone.

There is no sense in saying that men are from mars and women are from venus- neither figuratively nor literally. We both feel equal deeply, both have the same physical and emotional needs for nurturing, both are born with an undeniable desire to express our truths, and we both are from planet Earth.

#human #planetearth #men #women #life #writing #mentalhealth