Manning Up

I have a T-Shirt that has, in big bold letters:

"Still / Here"

It's the title of a modern dance piece by the Bill T Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company that I saw in Pittsburgh back around 1994.

Bill T. Jones in Still / Here

I was moved by the performance and bought the shirt because it looked cool and I wanted a memento of the show.

The piece is about life-threatening illness and other weighty matters.




Now, in trying times myself, I find my thoughts turning to what it means to be a Father and a Husband and a Son and a Brother; quintessentially male roles.  I don't usually think about life in these terms but sometimes it is interesting to think on what it means in modern times to be 'manly' or 'masculine'.

As I sometimes feel helpless in the face of problems inflicted on others near and dear to me and wonder what am I suppose to do, how am I suppose to act; I am comforted by the thought that for those that rely on me:

Manning up may be as simple as still being here...