One of the lessons I seem to have learnt growing up is that men don't cry. We are all supposed to be macho and not show emotion. The kids in the street would taunt you endlessly if you cried.
But I have seen a few man cry. I attended an Aids symposium a few years back in Toronto, and a man who has more than two members of his family afflicted by HIV/Aids cried.
I totally understood the guy because I have been in those moments when words fail you, when the only voice that remains is your tears. There is that moment when you stop caring what this or that person thinks and your heart feels heavier than the biggest ice boulder on the Swiss Alps, when your heart unleashes a torrent of tears.
If I had a son, I would want him to know that it is okay for a man to cry. I'd want him to know it takes a bigger man to show his feelings.
But perhaps I should explain what prompted this post. I just saw a video of R'N'B star Neyo crying in front of thousands of people in the U.K.
"I've never had to stop a show, never dreamed I'd ever have to. So when I had to walk out on that stage and tell 12,000 of the people responsible for making me who I am that I could not perform for them, it literally broke my heart....I cried harder than I have in a very long time with no shame whatsoever." he explained later in a blog post.
He adds: "To anyone out there that would like to question my manhood because of this I'll say this to you:
If the one thing you cared about more than anything else in the world was threatened or even taken from you, if you knew that the people you cared for the most you had to disappoint and it was your fault... and this didn't spark some kind of emotional outbreak within you...then with no shame I'll say you are truly a stronger man than I."
Big men do cry! I rest my case.