THE SOFT MAN

barracks. "If you ever cry, I will give you something to cry about," he'd thunder. The words weren't threats. They wer

s told to walk it off. If he expressed fear, he was told to grow up. Any form of softness was shamed

sadness, fear, and confusion were exiled. He became stoic, even robotic. Friends admired his c

lashed out, he kept his calm. People praised his resilience, but no one saw the toll i

oney. Never about pain. Men only talked about "real" things when drunk, and even then, only as

hed and floating. The more he kept quiet, the more invisible he became-even to himself. Conversation

mnia, but because he feared sleep. Sleep meant confronting the weight of the life he

was a slow erosion of identity, of soul. But he had no voca