Jake Roque's video: gentleness in the heart of the modern man Bluebird by Charles Bukowski

gentleness in the heart of the modern man // "Bluebird" by Charles Bukowski *READ DESCRIPTION* . I took a short trip to do a bit of writing recently, and I spent some time meditating on the fruit of The Spirit (Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control). It seems to me that gentleness is often overlooked, particularly by men in our society (and maybe that’s in part because I've overlooked it myself), but I think to do so is a massive error and possibly a tragedy in and of itself. These thoughts are not just for men of course, not at all, but my writing at this time was pertaining to the common gaps I have observed in society (and in myself) regarding what strong/healthy masculinity might look like in our rapidly changing world. . Gentleness is not weakness. Just as there is no courage without fear, there is no gentleness without strength. So gentleness is not being incapable of harm (that is weakness), but rather, it is being powerful and choosing to keep your strength at bay when necessary. Choosing to be kind, empathetic, and loving. To be soft with your heart and delicate with your touch. To share with those you love in tears of joy and of sorrow. . This poem hit me like a ton of bricks when I first heard it read by @LexFridman on his podcast, and it seemed to capture so well some of the ideas I had been sorting out. Lex is a powerful man. He's an unbelievably intelligent/creative thinker, a BJJ black belt, an artificial intelligence and robotics engineer/PHD, and he has such precision with his words that he can be deadly in conversation. Yet he’s always going on about love and kindness. If you listen to him for some period of time, you’ll likely also find him to be a great embodiment of this ideal. . Power, has been demonized in many ways in Western culture lately, and as a result, we're finding ourselves with an excess of weak losers sitting around and wallowing in nihilism and self pity. Such things are soul-sucking. . Instead, work hard, have ambition, strive towards the greatest good you can conceptualize and push yourself to your absolute limits over and over and over again. . Be powerful my friends. And then, be gentle.