There's a phrase (every man I know knows it): "Life sucks and then you die" Which is in some ways a variant of Buddhism's "Life is pain". At least for men, t

There's a phrase (every man I know knows it): "Life sucks and then you die" Which is in some ways a variant of Buddhism's "Life is pain". At least for men, there are always a number of times in one's life when you start thinking these phrases to describe your life. I've been pretty successful but I've also been divorced twice, bankrupted, made homeless, age-discriminated out of jobs, and bizarrely (even to me) I clawed my way back from each of these. Always thinking "Life sucks and then you die" to gather strength. I can easily imagine most men being wiped out by merely experiencing ONE of these situations and never "coming back to bat" again. And once you can imagine that, it's easy to imagine having zero of these or having even minor tragedies being overwhelmed from the get-go - it's all on a spectrum of individual constitutions and strengths that probably starts at "zero". I know plenty of men in that situation. So as sad as this story is, I'm not surprised by it. It's way more common than a lot of people think. But that's precisely why such stories are so valuable - no one is born with an understanding of the realities of life. You can only learn things the hard way or learn from others' stories.