Toby

“The self-esteem of western women is founded on physical being (body mass index, youth, beauty). This creates a tricky emphasis on image, but the internalized locus of self-worth saves lives. Western men are very different. In externalizing the source of their self-esteem, they surrender all emotional independence. (Conquest requires two parties, after all.) A man cannot feel like a man without a partner, corporation, team. Manhood is a game played on the terrain of opposites. It thus follows that male sense of self disintegrates when the Other is absent.”
― Antonella Gambotto-Burke, The Eclipse: A Memoir of Suicide

“DEATH

Why do you fear me?
I am your friend.
I but guide trav'lers
Rounding the bend ---
Lead them to freedom
From time and age,
Help them start writing a new page...

Seek for me never,
Keep your course true ---
When I am needed
I'll come to you,
Then I will show you
Roads without end ---
Why do you fear me?
I am your friend.”
― Clarence E. Flynn