So do you remember when I

complimented you…

on developing some empathy?

I do.

I may have spoken too soon.

*

I still don’t get this whole empathy

thing. What is it again?

The ability to be sensitive to

another person’s feelings.

And I don’t have that.

Well, your wife thinks so.

But it’s not your fault.

No?

No. You’re a man. Most men are

trained to be emotional dunderheads.

“Dunderheads”?

Emotionally incompetent.

Huh. And what do you mean “trained”?

We teach boys to ignore or hide

their feelings. That big boys

don’t cry.

They’re taught this so they can

go to work and to war and

do other hard stuff that feelings

tend to interfere with.

To become big boys who don’t cry.

Exactly. And once you lose touch

with your own feelings…

it becomes difficult to be

sensitive to anyone else’s.

Like my wife’s.

Exactly.

So my wife’s right. I am insensitive

to her feelings.

So it seems.

(Sigh.) Now I feel like a asshole.

I wouldn’t say that.

Better to think of yourself as…

a bull in a china shop.

(TO BE CONCLUDED)