Let The Dam Burst

Cowboy Hank was a "man's man." 

In his prime, he was capable, kind, generous, unassuming, and physically strong.  He was a captain of industry, a philanthropist, and a gentleman.  He was both a man of conviction and a man of action, and thus he worked to the best of his ability to make the world a better place for his partner, his children, and his community.  

Cowboy Hank, being the man's man that he was, resigned himself to control his emotions.  Emotions, he thought, made you soft; they made you weak; they made you look like a sissy.  Consequently, Cowboy Hank did not cry.  Ever.  

Until he did.  

The funny thing about time is that it changes everything, and as Cowboy Hank grew in age so too did his perspective.  Having reached the "back nine" of his life, he now fully understands that what we choose to do with our limited time on this ball of rock that's hurling impossibly through the universe actually matters.  "Investing for the future is easy" he says, eyes welling with tears, "but it's the giving backward - the investments we can make that pull others forward and actually change the lives of people we'll likely never know or even come into contact with - that ultimately changes the world."  

And with that, the dam bursts. 

All of the love, the friendships, the memories, the joy, the pain - the life within it all is too much to contain. 

Cowboy Hank, whose once impressive physical frame has all but betrayed him as he sits demurely with his head clasped in his hands, begins to cry, thus transitioning from physical strength to emotional strength and, consequently, into a more expansive definition of what it means to be a "man's man."