So what does it mean to be a man?

“For a second you see - and seeing the secret, are the secret,” says Edmund in Long Day’s Journey Into Night. “For a second there is meaning! Then the hand lets the veil fall and you are alone, lost in the fog again, and you stumble on towards nowhere, for no good reason!”

Being a naïve young father, a loving wife and four gorgeous rug-rats were able to subdue my excessive rationality and keep me connected to this secret for many years. Over time, however, you come to sense an unhealthy reliance. A stifling, even though you kind of know it’s not their “fault”. Eventually, you have to push on alone in search of sustained meaning.

It is this stumbling quest that has left men feeling isolated and fearful. The disillusionment is further compounded when we realise there is no way to think or argue our way back to what we have lost along the way. As I see it, the only real choice left for men is to acknowledge our fabulous black-and-white reasoning, while being a source of much achievement, is nonetheless limited. For such an acceptance may at least allow us to stop thinking too much and re-connect with reality.

Who knows, we may even then be able to answer some of the tough questions, like who it is we should love and what it means to be a man.