Men Staying Home

WE HOLD A MEN’S CALL EVERY MONTH. SIGN UP FOR CALL-IN DETAILS

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How are you doing? I’m certainly looking forward to our call on Monday. What a wild time this is. I want to honor the diversity of this group. Some of us are partnered. Some of us are not. Some of us work out in the world. And some of us do the hard work of rearing our families from home. I don’t mean to exclude anyone from this reflection.

But I’m really thinking about patriarchy. And how it was recently held by the idea that “women should stay home.” Today we are forced to live through a strange corollary. With all of us being forced to stay home. 

A lot is coming up for us.

I have to redefine my relationship with a work identity that is all about bringing people together in the flesh. A lifestyle of constant travel is suddenly interrupted. I am sequestered at home with the woman that I am consciously uncoupling from. We are spending more time in close quarters than we ever did when we were trying to make our marriage work. And we are both spending a lot more time with our son.

My story might be complicated. But it is essentially a good story. We have the tools to make it through. There are women and children in close quarters with men who are dangerous. There are people who will die alone.

What is life like when work does not serve as an escape? What is it like for breadwinners facing the likelihood of the next great depression? What happens in our relationships when we spend this much time with our partners? And how are our brothers doing who must spend this time alone?

Let’s talk. Let’s learn. Let us tend to one another. 

#physicallydistanced #sociallyclose 

Sending love,

Gibrán