There are Men Too Gentle to Live Among Wolves
original cover
“For wanderers, dreamers, and lovers, for lonely men and women who dare to ask of life everything good and beautiful. It is for those who are too gentle to live among wolves.” ― James Kavanaugh, “There are men too gentle to live among wolves.” Please click the link to see the related poem.
My copy of this classic book looks like the photo displayed here which tells you I’ve had this since the collection was released in 1970. It has been a touchstone. It talks about the kind of men the world needs now more than ever.
Most men are afraid to be gentle. This fear has cost them the ability (should they ever change their minds) to walk gently upon the earth and show genuine and infinite kindness to all others. They fear their toxic masculinity will be doubted should they ever display one moment of gentleness. And so they miss–are completely unaware of–the greater beauty life offers them. The offer is free to those who understand they cannot flex their muscles to obtain it.
They are not the men who kick in store windows during power blackouts or because they feel society has wronged them in some way. They are not the men who threaten women with their words and physical strength. They are not the men who cannot read a poem or see the wonder within a flower.
A gentle man (as opposed to a gentleman) has the power to change the lives of millions and even the failing environment of Earth itself. But he holds back for fear of being called unmanly.
Most of us know what kinds of men we need but fail to stand next to them when we see them for fear the taunts hurled at them will also be aimed at us. And so the world continues downward to hell in a handbasket.
It’s not too late to change who we are if we want to.
