Welcome...and initial guidelines...

This blog will be used in the spring of 2008 by 80+ students at Drexel University to investigate the effects of Iraq on culture and the reverse. Our goal will be to better understand why the US is in Iraq, and to question whether literature can help us on this journey.

Weekly plans and other materials will always be posted in Vista, not this blog. So go to Bb Vista to get the discussion prompts and other instructions.

I intend this blog to manage our discussions and track our collective investigation.

You should have received an email from me inviting you to become a contributor to this blog. The email was sent Monday afternoon to your official Drexel email address.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Big Boys Don't Cry

Now, I don't know the man code or anything, but I feel that this is an unwritten rule, that boys//men should not cry. It seems to me that there has always been a belief that boys//men do not and should not cry. During the last nineteen years of my life, very rarely have I ever seen a guy cry; one of the more recent times that I saw an adult man cry was at my grandparent's fiftieth wedding anniversary due to the overwhelming emotion of the situation.

I suppose the purpose of this unwritten rule dates back to way before our time-- I'd guess probably the beginning of time. I believe that this rule came about because a man is considered to be the head of the household, and if he was seen crying, he would be considered to be weak. In my opinion, I think that it is unfortunate that some guys choose to follow this unwritten rule because the end result of keeping your emotion bottled up inside isn't very pretty. On the other hand, I'm not saying to go around bawling your eyes out like a girl all the time, but sometimes a cry does the soul good.

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