Well it's past midnight, last night of my kids being gone so I decided to go get nachos. But luckily I can post the time as two hours back. It's still yesterday in Vancouver!
The thoughts were plenty of what I wanted to ramble about today, but I decided another mental health post was best for the time.
If you heard a mental health post for men, was telling them to "man up," I am imagining you would think it was directed at the men who were suffering. Well that's not the case. This post is for all men, around their brothers who are suffering.
The ultimate measure of a man has often been seen as the battlefield of war. Heroic war stories of a man laying it all on the line for his brothers in arms. Or men in emergency, service capacity. Fire, ambulance, police. Men being the absolute pinnacle of manly. Doing whatever it takes, to make sure those at his side make it home. Even if it costs him, his own life.
Yet so often, when it comes to mental health, this is not the case. The measure of a man is no longer helping his brother, rather it's him sucking it up, burying emotions, and faking it through life. How sad is that? When I felt God saying that the men of our nation need to be reached in a different way, I felt drawn to use a commonly used cop out, in an uncommon way.
It's not the men suffering in mental illness that need to "man up," rather it's the men around him. The terrors one fights in their own head, should not be faced alone. Men (and women) need to recognize that a man can have these struggles while still being masculine. It is not a fault of his character, rather a manifestation of the war we face, against a broken world. Suicide, homelessness, crimes of passion, so many things men far outnumber women, simply because they're told that they have to deal with things alone. That there is no help for one, such as them.
Well I am laying down the gauntlet to all men. It's time to man up. War, emergency, and mental illness, leaving a man behind in inexcusable. It's time to dive into the situation, and carry him out. Using all the effort you can muster. It's time we wage war on the epidemic that is men's mental illness.
Because a mentally healthy man is not only able to help other men, but women and children as well.
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